Democracy again at the crossroads The Age,Wednesday 25 July 2001 World leaders have recognised the legitimacy of the decision taken by Indonesia's supreme legislature, the People's Consultative Assembly, to dismiss the president, Abdurrahman Wahid, and install his deputy, Megawati Sukarnoputri, in his place. The world's fourth-most-populous country and Australia's near neighbor has a new leader, and all that Australia, and indeed, the rest of the world can do is to welcome her and hope her leadership will bring some stability to the troubled country. Unfortunately, the portents do not lend themselves to optimism. Mrs Megawati will have to cope with all the problems - crippling debt, lawlessness, corruption, ethnic and communal violence, environmental devastation and armed rebellion in Aceh and West Papua - that Mr Wahid coped, or failed to cope, with. Moreover, when she attempts to run the country, Mrs Megawati will find a presidency drained of power - in distinct contrast to the iron-clad authority that emanated from the Merdeka Palace during the 32-year rule of the former President Suharto, and before that, of her father, Indonesia's founding president Sukarno. The assembly's newly aggressive stance, in defying an emergency decree issued by Mr Wahid, could be seen by some as the signal of an emerging new political order in which the legislature asserts its constitutional role as the most powerful government institution after decades of authoritarian rule. And besides, Mrs Megawati is the country's most popular politician and the leader of its largest party. Is this not a victory for the constitutional process? Perhaps, but the background to the ousting of Mr Wahid makes this analysis rather less comforting. The campaign to destroy him began almost from the minute he took office, driven by conservative forces in the political elite, the military and the bureaucracy, many of whom were connected to the former Suharto regime. Having failed to discredit him on the basis of impropriety after he was cleared of any involvement in corruption scandals, his enemies cited political incompetence as the grounds for dismissal. It is true Mr Wahid's decision-making was increasingly erratic, that he was seemingly unable to institute a systematic program of economic reform and that he failed to quell ethnic and religious violence across the archipelago. But incompetence is a matter to be judged at the ballot box, not by impeachment. For many of the people of Indonesia, the demise of their first democratically elected president in more than three decades must be a profound disappointment. As for Mrs Megawati, if an elected president can be removed in the absence of clearly established cause, what constitutional protection is there for any who follow? The new Indonesian President is a strong nationalist who is opposed to increased autonomy for the rebellious provinces. Unlike Mr Wahid, she has expressed no interest in the reform of the military. She must rely on an unstable alliance of forces for a parliamentary majority, and at least some of the factions that helped unseat Mr Wahid have no interest in making a Megawati presidency a success either. Mrs Megawati has been known to her many passionate supporters as "the mother of the nation". Now she is. It is to be hoped her regime marks a continued evolution towards democracy in Indonesia. If it does not, she may well find that her presidency will be as brief as was Mr Wahid's. ...........Menuju Indonesia yang Demokratis dan Berkeadilan............ Untuk bergabung atau keluar dari Milis, silakan anda lakukan sendiri Bergabung: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Keluar: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ->Cake, parcel lebaran & bunga2 natal? Di sini, http://www.indokado.com<--
