To the President

To the President

From Forum Keadilan

I initially had my doubts about your capability to serve as a
pilot for some 210 million Indonesians. Today, my doubts have
degenerated into great worry about the leadership role you are
playing.

Mr. President, while one of the president's tasks is to give
peace of mind to his people, as I see it you (maybe the only one
ever) are leaving your people perplexed with all the confusing
statements.

Mr. President, in my way of seeing the situation, you have,
most of the time, occupied your people and most government
officials with major discussions on controversial trains of
thought rather than mobilizing them to overcome this protracted
crisis. Ludicrously, in responding to your controversial
comments, your staff members always argue that your statements
are merely ordinary ones but that the community failed to digest
them properly. Or, they will say that your ideas are way ahead of
the people.

It is here, Mr. President, that we have the tragedy. If the
statements made by your staff members are correct, why have you
recruited such people with such naivete? I use the word naivete
because from their statements the inevitable conclusion is that
you are the brightest and most knowledgeable person in the
country, while the people are a bunch of idiots.

Take the issue on the revocation of Provisional Consultative
Assembly Decree (MPRS) No. XXV/1968, for example. If it is your
desire that relatives of people suspected of being involved in
the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) should enjoy equal treatment
and rights as citizens, why is it that this decree must be
repealed?

To the best of my memory, when Soeharto and B.J. Habibie were
still president efforts were made to remove the discrimination.
Feisal Tanjung, for example, instructed the removal of the ET
code (indicating a former political detainee) from identity
cards. I think it is merely for you to improve on this policy
without having to revoke the decree on the banning of the PKI and
the propagation of Marxism-Leninism in Indonesia.

Mr. President, if in your opinion it is the right of every
citizen to opt for communism and the like as their ideology, it
follows that you will let heretical religious sects and teachings
develop in Indonesia. Is this really what you are after? Or, you
simply wish to catch the people's attention with your statements
so that they will have no chance to evaluate your performance.
Finally, Mr. President, why make so much fuss about this?

S. HUSNUM

Batam island