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.