Whence Akbar's power?

Whence Akbar's power?

How to describe this urbane gentleman who so smoothly changed
his image as Soeharto's loyal man to that of defender of
democracy and development? What should we do to stop him from
manipulating the proreform forces and prevent him from restoring
the power of the New Order regime? Who should be blamed for this
messy situation?

The gentleman we have in mind, of course, is Akbar Tandjung.
Akbar's latest maneuver to delay the final selection of the
Golkar Party's presidential candidates from the original schedule
-- in February -- to after April's general election has
disappointed the seven other Golkar presidential candidates, who
can do nothing more than grumble.

Akbar and his inner circle have argued that the delay is
needed to ensure that the party remains solid, at least until the
elections. It is not difficult, however, to find another reason:
Akbar needs more time for consolidating his ranks because he also
has an eye on the presidency.

The status of party chairman, even as a convict in a
corruption case, has apparently not diminished the man's
unyielding control over Golkar, which was the ruling party under
the Soeharto regime.

Many observers believe that the Supreme Court will eventually
acquit him at the "appropriate" time, which would pave the way
toward his becoming not just the country's kingmaker in next
year's presidential election, but possibly the king himself. Many
also believe that he has the capability to bring Golkar back as
the country's strongest political party in next year's general
election.

The fact is that even his severest foes, or those who hate
everything that has anything to do with Golkar, will find it is
difficult not to concede to his sophistication in politics. He
took over the party's leadership just a few months after
Soeharto's downfall in May 1998.

As a party founded by Soeharto, Golkar, at one time, lost its
credibility because it was regarded as one of the most
responsible parties for the megacorruption and gross abuses of
power committed by Soeharto. Now, more people are turning to the
party for help. They tend to ignore its past wrongdoings because
Golkar's track record in development and in economic achievements
is much more impressive than the political parties that came into
being after Soeharto's fall.

At present, the Golkar political machine seems the best
prepared to contest next year's election. Its human resources are
well established.

With all respect for Akbar and Golkar, however, we must say
that his strength lies not in his own brilliance or because the
party is irreplaceable. Both take benefit from the weakness and
greed of the politicians and political parties who flaunt
themselves as reformists, but have failed to deliver on the
promises they made in the 1999 general election. All of them
vowed to create a strong civil society, uphold the supremacy of
the law and punish anyone who stole money from the state and the
people.

Let's take a look at the performance of the major political
parties established since Soeharto's fall, such as Megawati
Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the National
Awakening Party (PKB).

Megawati has been acting more as a dictator within the party
than as a democrat. As for Amien Rais, can he convince PAN voters
that his party has met its obligations promised in the run-up to
the 1999 election? PKB was successful in bringing its cofounder,
Abdurrahman Wahid, to the presidency in 1999 but his humiliating
fall two years later left a serious wound for the party.

It is highly likely that none of these political parties will
have the guts to say that their politicians are as clean as they
present themselves to be, or that they have been able to realize
their stated political aims.

They have only themselves to blame if more and more people
seem to be giving consideration to voting for Golkar next year.
After all, apart from its huge sins of the past, the party is at
least noted in the collective memory as having had an impressive
success story in the field of national development -- never mind
if that "success" was paid for with huge sums of borrowed money
that must now be repaid.

Whatever one may say, for deprived people that past track
record is much more impressive than the empty promises made by
politicians who describe themselves as true reformists and true
democrats.

Therefore, we urgently call on all the proreform forces to
stop blaming each other if they still want Indonesia to be able
to escape its past and continue to march toward achieving the
dream of establishing a healthy civil society. The selfishness
and the shortsighted attitude of these politicians
has not only cost them their own future, but, more importantly,
that of the country's stakeholders, too.

We must therefore ensure that the Supreme Court can and will
act as the last bastion of justice when it issues its verdict on
Akbar Tandjung. Whether the court upholds the two-year verdict on
Akbar or he is acquitted, the verdict must be based on legal
considerations only, and nothing else.