The vacant throne
The vacant throne
Where? Here! Why? I have no idea! But it was a reader of The Jakarta Post who exploded that Indonesians are arrogant for not sending a dignitary to Amman on the occasion of King Hussein's demise recently while the ill Russian leader, Boris Yeltsin, left his sickbed to pay his last respects.
Clinton, of course, had to come, along with his wife and three former U.S. presidents, for political reasons, if only to forget Monica for a while.
The reader, who requested anonymity, wrote: "I feel sorry that Indonesia is blind and arrogant." Sure, it was a bad impression on Indonesia's part in view of King Hussein's role in the Middle East peace process and in helping establish international stability.
How could such simple diplomatic arithmetic be overlooked? In fact, there is a simple explanation, Indonesia had nobody available to go to Jordan! Foreign minister Ali Alatas had his hands tied up trying to help cut the East Timor Gordian knot, which has never looked more complicated than today when international pressure seems to be heaviest with the "escape" from prison of Mr. Xanana who is now allowed to live in a normal house.
Habibie could have attended the burial ceremony himself and left matters at home to the care of Wiranto. He could not do that due to the outbreak of disturbances which required his constant presence. Does he have his mind on a second term already?
As I see it, because we did not have a vice president who could represent Habibie at the ceremonies. The Constitution actually calls for the president to be executed by a vice president.
Unfortunately, Harmoko is still "in hibernation". As a dumb journalist, I raised the question of the absence of a vice president in one of my previous letters. If Habibie got ill who would fill his place? Who could guarantee that nothing would happen during the president's transitional reign? The vacant throne should have been filled so that somebody with equal rank and dignity could have gone to Amman.
Perhaps it is rather arrogant to think that he can stay at the helm of the state without a deputy. Remember, even pickpockets appoint a deputy in case their chief gets caught.
The vacant throne 2. An honorable legislator expressed another sort of arrogance the other day. The intention of the Indonesian airline Garuda to (again) increase its fares due to price increases of Avtur and Avgas" has shown an arrogant attitude" on the airline's part in view of the general economic malaise.
Arrogance or not, an outsider has the impression that Garuda has been managed by people with little airline experience who think only of profit and less of national mission. No wonder because most of them seem to be just trying something. If you open a food stall, of course, you cannot afford to have no profit in two weeks.
The time span for a national flag carrier, should be longer, one or two years, even five years. The management should see whether financial losses are not compensated by the profits from other sectors of state enterprises, not to mention stemming from national honor.
Surely, though, that is not prudent banking. All in all, there is an urgent need for Habibie to appoint a deputy, with the rank of vice president. The world is too stormy for him to afford to ride the waves only accompanied by the blessings of his attractive wife. And my advice is: Forget the elections, my dear, you have done enough.
GANDHI SUKARDI
Jakarta