Why Habibie must go

The past week certainly was a busy one for President B.J. Habibie. Looking after the routine daily affairs of state and government alone would be exhausting enough to sap the energy of any person in this time of crisis. But not for our spirited incumbent chief executive. With the presidential election only a little more than a week away, Habibie managed to engage in a flurry of extraneous activities designed to boost his chances of reelection by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which is the country's supreme legislative body. On Thursday last week, for example, the President invited all the regional representatives in the MPR to his private residence in Jakarta. Earlier in the week, Habibie, who is running for the presidency on a Golkar Party ticket, invited the entire Golkar faction in the Assembly for a string of meetings at the same address.

Although the meetings were publicly billed as dinner gatherings arranged by the President to congratulate the legislators for their nomination in the wake of June's general election, there was little doubt in the minds of observers about Habibie's true objectives: Jakarta was rife in the past week with rumors that resistance was growing within the party over Habibie's nomination as Golkar's sole candidate for the presidency. Surely this is a development which the incumbent President cannot feel comfortable about.

Those in Golkar who oppose Habibie's candidacy for the presidency, or at least his sole candidacy, naturally have their reasons for doing so. First of all, there is the New Order stigma that continues to cling to Habibie. Having been a long-time protege of the former autocratic president, of whom Habibie in the past only spoke of in glowing terms, Habibie is widely seen in Indonesia as an inseparable -- and incorrigible -- part of the now discredited authoritarian New Order regime of former president Soeharto. But more to the point is the performance which Habibie has managed to deliver during the year or so that he has been President of Indonesia. During that time, from May last year up to the present, Indonesia has seen its fortunes and its international reputation sink lower and lower into the depths of ignominy.

While South Korea, Thailand and other Asian countries have managed to successfully weather the Asian economic crisis, things have been little better now in Indonesia than they were during the first months Habibie took over from Soeharto. Indeed, there are those who claim that conditions in this country are worse now than they were in the last months of the Soeharto regime. The still unresolved Bank Bali scandal is one dramatic illustration to underscore the still rampant prevalence of corruption and power abuse. The government's failure to halt corruption has further eroded what is left of its credibility, both at home and abroad, and hence its chances to obtain the vitally needed disbursements of international aid.

Politically, the country continues to be in turmoil. The secession of East Timor has fueled similar demands for self-rule in several other provinces, particularly Aceh and Irian Jaya, but also on a smaller scale elsewhere, such as in Riau. With this development and with the protest actions that have emerged as a result of the government's inability to bring about justice has come an escalation of human rights abuses by the state's security apparatus. For the first time in Indonesian history, Indonesians face the possibility of a trial by an international tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by Indonesian soldiers in East Timor.

In brief, to say that there has been no meaningful progress during the period that Habibie has been President, is a gross understatement. In many respects, such as the prevalence of corruption, human rights abuses and security for investors, this country ranks among the lowest in the world. It is true that civic freedoms are better now than they were under Soeharto. Those who recall the mass student actions that brought down the old administration, however, must concede that the birth of those new freedoms was a historic necessity. In other words, they prevail despite, rather than because of, Habibie. The selective release of political prisoners could serve as an indication that the government's thinking at present differs little from that of the previous authoritarian regime.

Today being the day that Golkar is slated to begin its long awaited leadership meeting, its seems apt to suggest, given the circumstances mentioned above, that the party dump Habibie as its presidential candidate. We are aware that certain regional and sectarian interests were a consideration in the selection of Habibie. However, it must be kept in mind that for any party that professes to work for the nation's best interests, the good of the nation as a whole must come before anything else. Surely better candidates than Habibie can be found in a party that has ruled this country for more than three decades.