Unfulfilled expectations

When it comes to national reforms, 2002 has been a big disappointment. Hailing the new year tonight, we cannot help feeling that things could have been much better. As a nation that has put so much into the campaign for reforms -- including, for some, making the ultimate sacrifice -- we deserve much better than what the year has given us.

2002 started, like all new years do, promisingly, as we entered the fourth year of our national reform campaign. In President Megawati Soekarnoputri, we thought we had a national leader who could restore stability and order after the turbulent 21 months of Abdurrahman Wahid's presidency, and lead the reformation movement.

Restore she did, but the stability and order she imposed came at the expense of the goal of building civil society. In most areas, we barely made any progress; in other areas, we backtracked. Like running on a treadmill, we were left exhausted after 12 months but we did not advance a single inch.

The nation, and our politicians in particular, seem to have completely forgotten the pact we made in 1998 that we would mend our ways after we got rid of that dictator Soeharto. Little of what we did in 2002 reflected that commitment to reforms.

Some people might ask that, if 2002 has been a year of unfulfilled expectations, are we not expecting too much to begin with? After all, this has been a difficult year for everybody, and not just Indonesia. And on top of all that, we had the threat of terrorism and radical Islam to deal with during the year.

The answer to this question is a resounding "No".

Even with all the difficulties and challenges we faced, we are still entitled to expect to see some improvements, even if only slightly. As it turned out, we did not even get a token, or a signal that things were improving in the three major areas for reforms: politics, the legal sector and the economy.

In politics, democracy became a mere plaything for our politicians as the House of Representatives and the administration continued their endless power struggle. In the legal sector, the year saw human rights abusers and corruptors getting away from court punishments or getting off lightly.

The positive macroeconomic indicators (currency stability, controlled inflation and the positive, albeit small, growth) concealed deep-seated problems that will rear their ugly heads in the coming years through rising unemployment, more impoverishment and the prospect of a bankrupt nation.

Had we started the year on a gloomy note, we would probably be thankful today that this country did not break up, given all the problems that it has had to deal with. But we started 2002 with a much higher expectation than simply hoping to muddle through.

So, if there is one valuable lesson from 2002, it is that from now on we can no longer place too much hope on the elected politicians to lead the reform movement.

Both the administration of President Megawati Soekarnoputri and the House of Representatives have let us down. They have been so busy gearing themselves up for 2004 general elections that they have completely neglected the reform agenda.

The lack of leadership on the part of the government allowed events to dictate the national agenda. A case in point is the Bali bombing tragedy in October. Instead of heeding the warnings about imminent terrorist attacks, the government sat back and waited until they happened. While its response was remarkably swift, this episode characterized a government with a passive leadership, and not only in dealing with the threat of terrorism, but in just about every field.

There is no use griping about what we could or should have achieved these last 12 months. Suffice it to say that 2002 has been unkind to Indonesia, and that we have ourselves to blame.

Now, at least we know that we cannot rely or put our trust on the present political leadership to further the national reform agenda. Instead, we need to encourage greater initiatives to come from the people in the coming year to put this country back on the path towards peace and prosperity.

Disillusioned as we are about 2002, we know what needs to be done in 2003 for this country to have any hope at all.

In singing My Way before the Papuan public last week, President Megawati may have signaled that the end for her leading the reform movement was near, and that she was ready to face the final curtain. But as far as the nation is concerned, the struggle is continuing, with or without her.

Happy New Year.