Wahono's parting words

Wahono's parting words

As many of us came to expect, some valuable pieces of advice
were there to be found by those who were willing to listen to the
address delivered by House of Representatives Speaker Wahono
before the legislature's final plenary session on Friday before
it is disbanded to make room for a newly elected group.

Although the House has in the past five years performed its
main tasks satisfactorily, the need for improvement continues to
exist, especially to further elevate the House's function as a
forum for people's representation, Wahono said. Communication and
interaction between people and their representatives must be
improved so that people will truly feel represented by elected
legislators who are capable of conveying their aspirations.

The events of the past few years, according to Wahono, should
serve to remind us of the importance of developing political
institutions that are capable of serving people's aspirations. By
remaining committed to bringing about an orderly and gradual
renewal of this country's political management and mechanism,
radical methods in airing views in public and pursuing group
interests could be reduced to a minimum, Wahono said.

Although addressed to members of the outgoing legislature, it
was difficult to dismiss the impression that Wahono's remarks
made during the House's closing plenary session on Friday were
aimed more at the new House of Representatives, whose members are
to be formally installed on Oct. 1, than at the present
legislature.

As many observers have pointed out, the new legislative body
will, together with the executive branch of government, bear the
immense responsibility of guiding this nation through a crucial
period in history. Not only will the next decade be marked by the
prospect of a new generation of leaders taking over in all
sectors of life, the nation will face the challenge of having to
live in a complex new world and age in which national boundaries
offer little protection against assertive foreign influences and
interests -- a fact which we are even now being constantly
reminded of.

The question is whether the new legislature will be up to the
challenges that lie ahead. Our hope, naturally, is that it will
be. But it is hard to deny the urgency of addressing the needs
that House Speaker Wahono pointed out in his address last week.
True, the House has done reasonably well handling many of its
tasks, including the passing of 73 new laws to replace old ones
that were felt to be obsolete.

Still, as far as the public is concerned, a good deal more
needs to be done -- empowerment of the House being among the most
important. The fact that dissatisfied citizens have tended to
bring their grievances to the National Commission on Human
Rights, rather than to the House of Representatives, should serve
as a signal to our legislators that public trust in our national
legislature is still somewhat lacking.

The growing tendency in the past couple of years for people to
vent their anger through violence -- often directed toward the
government or state facilities -- is but another small indication
that the workings of our channels of expression and communication
leave much to be desired.

Certainly we all agree with House Speaker Wahono that radical
methods of airing public views must be minimized. As Wahono said
in an address late last month, a change in our political culture
is necessary if the House is to properly perform its duties as
people's representatives. House Speaker Wahono's latest remarks
more than deserve to be taken to heart.