Toward a reconciliation

Toward a reconciliation

Demands are growing that (former president) Soeharto be put on
trial, not to mention the calls for him to account for his past
policies in the scheduled special session of the People's
Consultative Assembly. We are not sure whether the current
investigation of people who are close to him -- such as Prabowo
Subianto and Mohamad "Bob" Hasan -- is any indication pointing in
that direction. However, we can envisage him dragging all the
members of his old regime -- and this would include President
B.J. Habibie and the majority of Habibie's cabinet -- into the
process.

Thus, the Habibie government's position at present is shaky
and quite dilemmatic. True, Habibie is beginning to gain wider
recognition as a hard-working and fairly daring leader. Also,
many people believe that the general thrust of his policies --
for example his proposed expansion of the regions' autonomy, the
opening up of hitherto closed political corridors and the
proposed strengthening of the economic base of Indonesia's masses
-- could reduce the threat of popular discontent.

However, it is at this point difficult to estimate what the
results of the above policies will be. Habibie is racing against
time and there is no guarantee that he will get the time he needs
to push through his programs. It is quite possible, therefore,
that the times we will have to face will be even harder than the
present. Still, we all need to stick to the political consensus
we have agreed upon while trying to find a new solution that is
best for the nation. The concept of a national reconciliation
team is useful as long as long as all the nation's aspirations
and potentials are accommodated.

The team must be open and government members must not be
allowed dominate. Most important, in order to ensure the team's
credibility and weight, is the inclusion of public figures such
as Megawati Soekarnoputri, Amien Rais and Abdurrahman Wahid. It
is important to include people who are known for their ability to
elucidate the feelings of the people at the grass roots level and
avoid choosing those who would only use the process to serve
their own ambitions.

A credible and truly functioning team could help bolster the
people's hopes that we will be able to get through this difficult
transition period safely.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta