Who were Wahid’s targets?
Who was President Abdurrahman Wahid really getting at when he uttered the word "culprits" at the closing ceremony of the National Discussion Forum in Bali last week? It’s like asking the grass why it’s swaying.
There’s no answer.
Regrettably, the grass has no mouth. It is just sways according to the direction of the wind. Who is likely to listen to the voice of the grassroots in the remote parts of Indonesia now anyway? The leaders of Indonesia are quarrelling, both with their political
opponents and with their own egos. A national leader utters words one would not expect and startles people. Truly saddening and also embarrassing.
In Bali, Gus Dur said he had just given approval for investigation of certain lawmakers. Then he said that he knows through intelligence reports who are the culprits behind the violence which has racked the country. This intelligence may be great, but the violence in Maluku (the Moluccas) has been going on for a year, hundreds of people have died, and there is no solution right up to now.
It’s nice to know that the intelligence experts do in fact know who the culprits are. The grassroots certainly know the answer, if they only had a voice.
This is not the first time Gus Dur has said he knows who is causing trouble. In 1998, when a series of shamans were brutally murdered by masked killers around Banyuwangi in East Java, he also knew who the mastermind behind it was.
In the early stages of the Maluku violence, Wahid even came out with the initial of the alleged mastermind, which was a K. When a lot of people starting looking for a name beginning with K, both in the armed forces and among civilians, Gus Dur lightly explained his true meaning. K stood for Kunyuk, which means a monkey or idiot.
People laughed and praised him for being very funny. But when human lives don’t have any value any more, the rupiah is increasingly sinking into the mire, the numbers of people living in poverty is increasing, disasters repeatedly strike this country, jokes like this need to be kept to oneself. Indonesians need to be serious now.
For this reason, Gus Dur must clarify who exactly were the culprits he meant, whether or not they are in parliament, which he later denied ever saying. In his speech in Bali, he firstly said that he had given approval for investigation of lawmakers. Secondly, he said he knew who was responsible for all this violence.
In fact it is not so unusual for the Attorney General’s office (AGO) to make a request for presidential approval to carry on an investigation, in the way Wahid described. The AGO has given the names of 100 or more witnesses linked to the Suharto corruption investigation to the General Secretariat of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR). Among these names are two MPR members, Fuad Bawazier and Siswono Yudohusodo. Both have been investigated by the AGO in the past. If this is what was meant, where is the link with riots in the regions? People then "distorted", Wahid says.
And to come out with the name of former top economics minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita, now a deputy chairman of the MPR. Well, who knows how this name got into the "accusation market". But the worm turns: Ginandjar is gathering strength to condemn Gus Dur.
If it is just an issue of upholding the law, then let alone Fuad, Siswono or Ginandjar—MPR chairman Amien Rais, DPR chairman Akbar Tandjung or Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri can all be investigated by the police. The people will be happy to hear that the law is being upheld in an unbiased way. Hasn’t the president himself been investigated in the disappearance of money from an employees fund at state commodities regulator Bulog, although the result has not been issued yet?
The people will throng to Gus Dur’s support if anyone at all implicated in corruption in Indonesia is quickly investigated by a court. It is more than eight months since he became president, but not one person who siphoned off public money has yet been prosecuted. There is a long list of conglomerate heads who siphoned off public money through liquidity credits from Bank Indonesia or non-budgetary funds at various departments in Suharto’s last months in power. So far only Suharto’s erstwhile golfing buddy Bob Hasan has been arrested.
People will applaud loudly, and students will no longer protest at the AGO, if the highly indebted leaders of these conglomerates are arrested en masse. But let’s not confuse this issue with political issues, about questioning the president, the schedule of the annual MPR session, fighting over the president’s chair and so on.
Gus Dur has no need to panic. Just stay cool and you’ll still be president Gus, but also be careful when you talk. If now you talk like this, tomorrow will be like that. Get it wrong once, it’s no problem, the people understand. Maybe it was a slip of the tongue. Twice and people still can try to understand. Maybe he was told the wrong thing. A third time, people are going to ask, "what’s up with the President?", who we all esteem. If after this he still says the wrong things, or his language stands out by its inconsistencies, the people quite rightly will wonder if there might not be some more serious problem.
As long as those mistakes are corrected and remembered, then there are signs of improvement. And then truly Indonesians will be proud to have a president like Gus Dur; clever, democratic and funny. The difficult thing is if no one is brave enough to tell him when he fouls up. For example, if Gus Dur says the sky is yellow, is someone going to remind him that in fact it’s blue? Or will they rather confirm his view that the sky is yellow? Who can take on a role like this?
If Gus Dur cannot be kept in touch with reality like this, then if every time he opens his mouth he causes controversy, the people are going to ask whether they can stand this until 2004, when his term of office is due to end.
Wahid’s contentious statements like those in Bali may not only be a threat to those outside the palace, but also to the president himself.
(CM)