Wahono on a tightrope

Wahono on a tightrope

Speaker of the House of Representatives Wahono is walking a
tightrope. He is being challenged as to whether he is courageous
enough to defend a legislator whom the ruling party Golkar wants
to sack. As required by procedures, Golkar has officially
proposed the withdrawal of Bambang Warih Koesoemo for misconduct
and "lacking manners" in dealing with cabinet ministers. Bambang
stands accused of offending the ministers of manpower, industry
and finance.

Minister of Industry Tunky Ariwibowo has said he did not feel
offended by Bambang. And Bambang himself has denied the charges
leveled against him by his party leaders, calling them "major
slander" and a "political maneuver".

In line with tradition, a political group can propose to the
House speaker that a legislator be withdrawn. It depends on the
speaker whether or not he considers it justified to pass the
proposal on to President Soeharto. In Bambang's case, many people
believe that the dismissal is due to his outspokenness and no
other reason.

Perhaps, because the withdrawal was proposed by Golkar, the
government-backed political grouping which dominates the House,
so many people have expressed their sympathy for Bambang. People
do not expect that political grouping to resort to such means to
discipline its members. Although it can legitimately demand
Bambang's withdrawal, the move does not seem to be in line with
democratic procedures and with the demands for greater openness
among the public.

The problem now is just how courageous Wahono, who is a former
Golkar chairman, will be in studying the case objectively and
making a fair decision.

It should be remembered that, as reported, President Soeharto,
who is the chief patron of this political group, has given the
green light for the dismissal.

When Amir Machmud was in Wahono's position a decade ago, he
refused to pass on a similar proposal by the United Development
Party against a House member called H. Sudardji. At that time,
Amir reportedly said that "I am not a post office chief who sends
onward everything I receive."

In efforts to muster the necessary courage, perhaps Wahono
should understand that the matter of Bambang has grown to immense
proportions. It is now a problem of losing face, instead of
whether the legislator has performed his constitutional duties in
the right way. For Golkar and Bambang himself it is now a problem
of face saving. In Indonesia, saving face is perhaps more
important than almost anything else.

In this case we understand why other ministers -- apart from
Tunky -- have refused to comment on whether or not they felt
insulted by Bambang's style.

Although voters choose a political group and not an individual
representative in the Indonesian election system, it is not
completely true to say that a House member is there to represent
his party and not the people. When a legislator takes his oath he
pronounces loyalty to "the people, the nation and the state", not
to his political grouping.

We are afraid that if the speaker just forwards everything a
political group requests to the President, then one day he
himself could be withdrawn by his party for defending a
legislator whom his party loves to hate.

Besides, it seems that Golkar would be wise to consider the
impact which this particular move could have on its standing in
the eyes of the electorate. It should be borne in mind that
because of their better education, today's Indonesians are
generally much more capable of drawing their own conclusions than
their parents were.