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