Vote for real change

Today is decision time for Indonesia, or more precisely for Indonesians. For once, people of voting age have a rare opportunity to determine their own fate, like all free people in a civilized society should. This year's general election, for all its flaws, offers Indonesians the chance to elect their own leaders in a democratic fashion. It certainly beats the last six rigged elections that saw Soeharto reelected each time.

This will be the first ever democratic poll Indonesia has held since 1955. It culminates the long and bloody struggle that began with the student movement in January 1998. The movement, with the cry battle reformasi (reform), brought the tyrannical rule of president Soeharto to an abrupt end in May last year. Students and youths, and society as a whole, paid with blood, sweat and tears to achieve that goal.

The reform struggle is not over yet. Far from it. Bringing Soeharto down was only the first step. Many elements or components of the New Order regime remain powerful and have put up a fierce fight to ensure that they remain in charge of the country. The fight for reform is still continuing, and today's general election is the means for that peaceful struggle.

It is too early to predict victory for reform. Various opinion polls published in recent weeks may have given the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) the lead, but these reflected mostly the urban population, who make up less than 40 percent of Indonesians. The 60 percent or more of the population in rural areas were not only left out of these surveys, they were also out of reach of most of the major proreform parties.

The massive turn out at campaign rallies is misleading since they were more a carnival event than a real political gathering. Besides, some of these participants were paid to join, and they would not necessarily vote for the generous party today.

Predictions by analysts and punters are even less reliable, especially since most of them used the voters' behavior pattern of the 1955 general election. That they have to go as far as 44 years back to predict the 1999 elections is a sad reflection of Indonesia's democracy. It is like predicting the 2000 elections in the U.S. by studying the voting pattern of the 1957 elections that saw Dwight Eisenhower win his second term in office. Nothing can be more pathetic than that. It is sad but true that when it comes to democracy, time has stood still in Indonesia. We have been deprived of the chance of building this nation upon a solid democratic footing, first by Sukarno, and later by Soeharto.

The opinion surveys, the predictions by so-called experts and the turnout rate at campaign rallies are meaningless on election day. They don't count. It is the ballots that win elections.

Voters in Indonesia nevertheless have real choices to make today. Forty-eight of them to be exact. It remains to be seen whether they will make informed choices, which is what a democratic election is really all about. We just hope that the proreform parties, although competing against one another in this election, have managed to convey their message effectively, that what this country needs is a real and genuine change.

This general election, even with its shortcomings because it was hastily prepared, offers the best chance for the nation to eliminate all the remnants of Soeharto's New Order forces, the so-called status quo forces, in a peaceful and orderly fashion.

Everyone should, indeed, vote according to their conscience. For the sake of this country's future, they should vote for a real and genuine change. The greatest tragedy that could befall the nation today is to return the status quo forces to office. Then, it will be on our conscience that we have betrayed the reform movement -- and betrayed those who gave their lives for the movement -- for failing to make meaningful changes in this country when the rare opportunity presents itself.