The voice of the future

The voice of the future

Antigovernment student demonstrations are spreading to more
campuses in more cities. The young people appear to have won more
ears and hearts among the public, who are finding their demands
for political and economic reforms legitimate.

Many people believe the students are, without any doubt,
echoing the suffering of the majority of Indonesians amid the
current catastrophic economic crisis. They also believe that
without any political and economic reform or the establishment of
clean governance the future of this country will not just be
bleak but the darkest of any country on this planet.

According to World Bank president James Wolfensohn, the number
of Indonesians living on one U.S. dollar per day or less will
almost double to 20 percent of the population of 203 million
people from 11 percent because of the crisis. Local economists
have also said that some 18 million people will be forced into
poverty by the crisis and will remain desperately poor for years
to come.

The authorities seem to be divided as to how to handle the
students. The first clique, which includes the minister of
education and culture, opposes the rallies. The minister, who is
known for his even-handedness in facing demonstrating students,
has branded the current student protests "practical politics" and
said it is not a suitable activity for students to be involved
in. This term is not to be found in any modern dictionary. It has
also confused many scholars.

The second group, which includes Armed Forces (ABRI) leaders,
prefers to offer friendly ears to the restive young people. Last
month the ABRI faction in the People's Consultative Assembly
(MPR), which reelected President Soeharto for a seventh term and
formulated the State Policy Guidelines, invited the students to a
dialog. But the talks were not productive because the military
was not willing to channel the students' aspirations to the
country's highest constitutional body.

Now, with the students voicing their aspirations louder and
louder, who will be wise enough to listen to them? There is no
possibility of the MPR meeting to discuss their demands because
it has no tradition of gathering outside its five-yearly meeting
since it unseated former president Sukarno and replaced him with
Soeharto three decades ago.

Despite last month's fruitless meeting with the students and
its more recent invitation to hold a dialog with students -- who
rejected it because they foresaw another unproductive outcome --
ABRI's approach is plausible. The attitude is a positive gesture
in the barren political system, in which the House of
Representatives has demonstrated its lack of sensitivity for the
nation's plight.

This situation -- combined with the lamentably harsh way
security officers have handled the student rallies -- has
resulted in more people being pushed deeper into the darkness.
Many no longer trust the government's stated sincerity to
implement the economic reform package agreed with the
International Monetary Fund and eliminate the dirty practices of
nepotism, corruption and collusion.

This is understandable because the authorities have also
refused to give the slightest sign that they are en route to
introducing clean governance, by, for example, starting to take
stern action against corrupt officials.

The people in both the infrastructure and suprastructure of
the political system seem to need to understand that the time has
passed when irresponsible people treated responsible students
as subversive elements. The students are not engaging in
"practical politics" -- God only knows what this term means --
but high politics under the umbrella of the 1945 Constitution.

Shutting all doors to the students will not only push them
toward radicalism, but will also be calamitous for the nation's
future. When the catastrophe comes there will be no more speakers
or listeners because everybody will be too faint to communicate,
let alone talk about regret.