Tough job for the Assembly

Friday marks another milestone in the history of the 54-year- old Indonesian republic. On this day the second democratically elected People's Consultative Assembly convenes. Its members include all members of the House of Representatives.

The first democratic Assembly this country established was in the wake of the 1955 general election, the first and only fair general election here until last June.

The nation's journey toward democracy has been a long and rough ride. The struggle for a universally recognized political system was tragically interrupted by presidents Sukarno's and Soeharto's authoritarian rules starting in 1959 and 1971 respectively.

Sukarno seized power by dissolving parliament with a decree, and his successor staged his first dirty and deadly election in 1971 to divert the nation from its dream of a democratic future.

But it is also worth remembering that this year's general election does not mean a complete shift from old values to new. The general election was called in an effort to address the nation's problems in the wake of student demonstrations, which managed to force Soeharto to step aside in May last year.

As there was no other method available, the electoral process was based on the 1945 Constitution, the imperfect, outdated but most exploited document in our history, and on which many laws have been based.

The nation has for the past year been in a transitional period, living under a Soeharto-style government. That is why most thinking citizens never expected any change that would produce total reform.

Now people pin their hopes on the new Assembly, the nation's highest constitutional body, to introduce total reform, just as student demonstrators strived for last year.

To avoid a repeat of the aftermath of the 1955 polls, the new Assembly must turn out a democratic and strong government under a reformist leadership. Judging by the failure of the June polls to yield an absolute majority -- just like the 1955 general election -- the task will be complicated and precarious.

There is one political contestant who leads the vote, but in the Indonesian system such a strength does not guarantee the right to lead the nation. There is an outstanding majority of Assembly members, who comprise interest group members, regional representatives and 38 nonelected military men, who have their own concepts of national programs.

Our system might appear to be the most confusing in the world, but it is the only system we have. So even now poor Indonesians are still in the dark about who will lead them for the next five years.

Other arduous problems which the nation has put on the shoulders of Assembly members include the amendment of the 1945 Constitution, the introduction of good governance, respect for human rights, judiciary independence, a legal solution to the alleged corruption by Soeharto and his cronies during 32 years of iron-fisted rule, the creation of effective regional autonomy and the end of the military's sociopolitical role.

With all these matters combined, the Assembly can only reach a deadlock if its members fail to show statesmanship, shed their political egotism, and put their loyalty to their political parties aside, because the nation needs their absolute loyalty as never before.