To Sonia Gandhi

In a spiritual sense, there is no country closer to Indonesia than India. In their struggle for independence, the two were, so to speak, brother and sister, fighting the same evil of colonialism. The Bandung Asian African conference in 1955 was initiated by, among others, the post-independence leaders of India and Indonesia with the common goal of warding off the calamity of an East-West global atomic confrontation.

Your mother-in-law, the late Indira Gandhi, was involved, later to be replaced by Rajiv, who was your husband. Well, we all know the story. There are no pleasant things to write about my country, mostly shameful things. About 50 political parties are preparing for hopefully the truest democratic elections we have ever had. This confusion has been compounded by the bomb blast in Southeast Asia's largest mosque, a case still waiting to be uncovered by the police, if it ever is.

I notice you also have problems along the winding road of democracy. Indonesia has many labels for democracy, which up to now have only made a few people rich at the expense of the majority of the people. India has never changed the banner of democracy, yet your boat has been swaying rather wildly, badly damaging the reputation of the Congress Party and its leaders.

Regarding true democracy, my country is still in the cradle stage in spite of 50 years of independence. In India, I guess democracy is so ripe that it almost falls from the tree, not much use to the people. I am sorry to notice that you are now in the middle of it, a democratic mess, and, like people here must start anew the election process. In spite of so many problems causing big headaches and other pains and worries, many believe Sonia Gandhi needs our moral support in her climb to India's summit. A report from New Delhi almost robbed me of my appetite when it said: "Most Indian politicians cannot be taken for their word. They are not keeping their promises. They are not to be trusted."

Well, politicians in a sense can be worse than blood-sucking leeches, a street beggar told me in Bombay when I visited India as a guest of your government.

Indonesian politicians, I must add, have long been compared to leeches themselves; the more so the closer they get to the power holders. We may safely accept that in both our countries, 30 percent of foreign aid, for whatever purposes and in whatever form, goes somehow down the drain or to the wrong people.

Studies have shown that the credibility of the Indian politician is currently at its lowest level since the country's independence from British rule in 1947. So, like here, politicians there are accusing each other of vote buying.

You hated politics, yet you have now to defeat politics in its ugliest form. You also disliked power, yet power is imposed on you from stronger people. You avoided the limelight, yet the world's cameras are on you. Why should you, an Italian woman by birth, shoulder the burden? Has India become so poor in renewal of spirit and weak in political reform?

Please take note that women of this country, in the footsteps of the Mahatma, have reiterated their pledge to fight any sign of intolerance. They even swear allegiance to the ahimsa, the non- violence movement. They have set up their own Gandhi Vajpathit in Denpasar, Bali, led by, among others, woman astronomer Karlina Leksono. But to follow the footsteps of a saint like Mahatma Gandhi, one has to conquer the greedy forces inside oneself. Then you may wear your loin cloth. And you may buy your goat later.

GANDHI SUKARDI

Jakarta