http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/FJ20Ae01.html
Indonesia's transition: The good, the bad, the ugly By Gary LaMoshi DENPASAR, Bali - The month between Indonesia's presidential vote and Wednesday's inauguration of the country's first directly elected president brings to mind the classic Clint Eastwood spaghetti western, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. New legislators, incoming president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and outgoing president Megawati Sukarnoputri, respectively, have filled the title roles in this Indonesian drama. Casting legislators as good guys in Indonesia goes against type, and little appeared different during the opening days of the lawmakers' organizing session early this month. Golkar party chairman Akbar Tanjung, who leads the four-party Nationhood Coalition that holds 305 of 550 seats in the House of Representatives (DPR) and supported Megawati's election bid, said the coalition would become an opposition bloc against Yudhoyono's government, without even asking what Yudhoyono may have in mind for the country. That declaration fit the pattern of the House that Tanjung has chaired for the past five years, a body more interested in playing politics than passing laws. A move in the waning moments of its September session to cut the fuel-subsidy budget appeared to be the opening salvo in a legislative campaign to undermine Yudhoyono before he even began his term (see Yudhoyono's signs of style, not substance, September 28). It was business as usual when the legislative session got under way with a dispute over electing the legislative leadership. (New legislators were sworn in to a newly reformed parliament on October 4.) The protracted deliberations gave lawmakers several extra days to enjoy their luxurious hotel rooms and expense payments. Surprisingly, the results didn't follow form. Usual suspects Despite grumbling from Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Tanjung's Nationhood Coalition quickly elected Golkar veterans to lead the House and the new 128-seat, senate-style Regional Representatives Council (DPD). In the process, however, the coalition group lost the United Development Party, a Muslim party that teamed with Yudhoyono's supporters to run rival candidates. Electing leaders to the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the body combining the House and DPD, proved more contentious. While Tanjung traded horses within his coalition to create an acceptable leadership lineup, its new rival and supporter of Yudhoyono, now known as the People's Coalition, gained enough strength to elect Hidayat Nur Wahid of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) as Speaker of the MRP. Under Indonesia's new bicameral legislative system, the MPR has the power to amend the constitution and impeach the president and vice president. Wahid's election signals that, at least for the moment, Yudhoyono is safe from impeachment (don't laugh - analysts said Tanjung hoped to oust Yudhoyono just as the MPR impeached president Abdurrahman Wahid in 2001) and is picking up strength among legislators to get laws passed. This political infighting wouldn't matter much to real Indonesians, except that PKS is a maverick among political parties. It was one of only two parties - Yudhoyono's Democratic Party is the other - to increase its share in national legislative voting in April compared with elections in 1999. PKS is a grassroots Islamic party that grew by campaigning in local mosques on a reform platform and won the most seats on Jakarta's city council. Great expectations Of course, the same could be a said of Amien Rais, the academic turned activist turned politician with a reputation for honesty and the previous MPR Speaker. His first move as Speaker was spearheading the alliance to deny Megawati the presidency in 1999, undermining his reformist credentials and showing himself to be more interested in power politics than policy. A poor showing in this year's presidential election ended Rais' political career. Wahid has gotten off to a much better start as MPR Speaker. Among his first acts, he declared that he and his deputies would turn down US$400-a-day royal suites at the posh Mulia Hotel during MPR sessions and request more economical cars than the Volvo limousines allotted to them. Critics have dismissed the declarations as empty gestures. No doubt the bitter leadership fight that seated Wahid and the last legislature's paltry lawmaking output may indicate more accurately what's ahead. But Wahid's gesture and others like it are badly needed in Indonesia, where politicians see public office as an opportunity not to serve the public but for the public to serve them. Witness these ugly final days of Megawati's presidency. Megawati has yet to concede defeat in the September 20 runoff election despite losing by 61% to 39%, a margin of about 25 million votes. She's refused to meet with Yudhoyono and says she won't attend his inauguration. One can dismiss these petty slights of a politician scorned. One can even chuckle as Megawati hands out promotions to her personal assistants or vice president Hamzah Haz sends the household staffs for both of his wives on an off-season haj, the cost to a bankrupt nation notwithstanding. What's dangerous is that Megawati's government continues to make decisions with long-term implications, oblivious to the election result that explicitly rejected its rule. Armed forces chief General Endriartono Sutarto resigned unexpectedly this month when the results of the runoff vote were no longer in doubt. Megawati moved immediately to replace him with General Ryamizard Ryacudu, an army officer like Sutarto. Not only does Megawati's move undercut the incoming president's authority, but it also undermines the convention that the country's top military job rotates among the services. Megawati's regime has also made decisions about closing state companies and reorganizing their boards of directors. These moves would seem to engender disrespect for democracy. Any major decisions that can be delayed should be left to the new president; those decisions are part of the proper exercise of Yudhoyono's mandate. As good as it gets What's bad in this pre-election scenario is that Yudhoyono seems to have little idea about exercising his mandate. Although he'll have at least five years in which to make a mark on the nation, he has failed to seize the initiative at this key moment. The former general and newly minted holder of an agricultural-economics PhD is cementing his reputation for preferring thinking to acting - more comfortable in the war room talking through scenarios than on the front lines commanding troops. Megawati's refusal to concede defeat clearly wrong-footed Yudhoyono, who delayed his victory speech until five days after the official results were announced. When he did take the mike, Yudhoyono offered the same platitudes and generalities he had during the campaign. He said he would improve the economy, eradicate corruption and enact his policies in the first 100 days. Most memorably but least relevantly, he pledged not to travel overseas during his first 100 days, a jab at Megawati and her fondness for shopping abroad. If Yudhoyono didn't have to get down to specifics to get elected, perhaps he sees little reason to do it now. He can follow the advice of former US president Theodore Roosevelt, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," even if there's little evidence to date of the big stick. Yet now is a moment when Yudhoyono could set a tone for his administration and mark boundaries for prospective ministers. He never will have more leverage over his ministers than he does at this time, nor more freedom to set out his vision for the nation. Instead, Yudhoyono has leaked details of office organization. Similarly, it seems that the People's Coalition has emerged ready to support Yudhoyono, without his active participation. Some analysts believe that many legislators will gravitate toward Yudhoyono's camp, anxious for presidential favors, so patience and platitudes will serve him best. That approach echoes Javanese legends, where true royalty waits for power to come to it rather than crassly seeking it out. In the modern world of Javanese power plays, Yudhoyono's deliberate, quiet performance since the runoff helps explain how he could successfully serve presidents as different as Suharto, Abdurrahman Wahid and Megawati. But such a performance from a president rather than an officer or minister is precisely the sort of weak leadership that Indonesians voted against last month. A hopeful nation anxiously awaits evidence that Yudhoyono got the message. Gary LaMoshi, a longtime editor of investor rights advocate eRaider.com, has also contributed to Slate and Salon.com. He has worked as a broadcast producer and as a print writer and editor in the United States and Asia. He moved to Hong Kong in 1995 and now splits his time between there and Indonesia. (Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] for information on our sales and syndication policies.) ------------------------ Yahoo! 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