Who's to blame?

Who's to blame?

For months Indonesians have been led to believe that most, if
not all, of this country's present economic and political
troubles are caused by squabbles among the political elite. That
assumption is disputed by Akbar Tandjung, the chairman of the
Golkar Party who is also speaker of the House of Representatives,
the lower house of the Indonesian legislature.

In a scathing attack contained in a speech delivered before
thousands of Golkar supporters on the occasion of the opening of
the party's leadership meeting at the Jakarta Convention Center
on Tuesday evening, Akbar instead blamed President Abdurrahman
Wahid for causing this country's afflictions.

"The nation actually had high expectations that the election
of Abdurrahman Wahid as President would lead the country out of
the crisis. But during the course of its journey, this credible
and legitimate government has failed to correctly interpret the
message that was mandated by the State Policy Guidelines (GBHN),"
Akbar said to the cheers of thousands of Golkar supporters in the
Convention Hall auditorium.

"The government has issued controversial statements and
policies which have been prone to create instability and
political uncertainties that in the end will make economic
recovery even more difficult," Akbar said, citing the dismissal
of two Cabinet ministers, Laksamana Sukardi and Yusuf Kalla, by
the President in April, and his plan to revoke the 34-year-old
ban on communism as specific examples of the President's
inconsistencies.

"What has been even more worrying," according to the Golkar
chairman, "is that there are indications that certain parties are
trying to shift the blame to (bickering among) the political
parties, whereas the real problem is the President's
inconsistency."

There is no doubt that making controversial and inconsistent
statements and actions have been among President Abdurrahman
Wahid's most glaring shortcomings in the nine months that he has
been in power.

While traveling abroad, he has accused several Cabinet
ministers of corruption and dismissed some without proof or
trial. Certainly, they have been among the major causes of the
doubts and confusion that is causing investors to take a
wait-and-see attitude before investing their money in Indonesia.

He told the media that some of the "culprits" who have been
stoking the unrest in Maluku and elsewhere "are in the People's
Consultative Assembly" (MPR) and would soon be arrested. He later
retracted the statement, telling reporters not to "twist" his
statements.

So much for Abdurrahman's inconsistencies. True as they are
though, it is not entirely proper either for the country's
political elite to wash their hands of the responsibility for
causing the present doubt and concern that is putting a spoke in
the wheel of economic recovery. In the first place, Abdurrahman
Wahid was elected President by some of those who are now his
harshest critics -- people who pretty well know, or should have
known, his frail physical condition at the time he was elected.
For those people to put the blame of the country's condition
entirely on the President's shoulders seems rather unfair, to say
the least.

Second, it seems that it is not only Abdurrahman Wahid who is
being inconsistent. Just two days before Akbar Tandjung made his
speech at the Golkar's leadership meeting on Tuesday, all 11
factions in the People's Consultative Assembly agreed in a joint
statement to reduce the mounting political tension ahead of the
annual General Session of the Assembly. Certainly, renewing
attacks on the President does not serve that purpose.

Speculation is rife in Jakarta at present that some factions
in the Assembly could still try to unseat the President in the
upcoming session in August, despite the fact that such a move is
considered unlikely by many. The hidden purpose of such an act,
supposedly, could be to make Vice President Megawati
Soekarnoputri president and to appoint a new vice president.

Since under the Constitution the vice president automatically
becomes president in the case the latter is incapacitated -- or
is unseated the next year or the year after that -- such a
scenario would provide a solid power foothold for whichever party
benefits from the move.

Little wonder investors are opting to wait and see how things
turn out. As for this country's politicians, we once again urge
them to make every effort to turn themselves into real statesmen,
for the sake of this long-suffering country. It is their wisdom
and statesmanship that will shape the fate of more than 200
million Indonesians.