Uphill Effort

Indonesia's President has Daunting Tasks and Little Time to Show Improvement

Tom Uhler
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

JAKARTA, Indonesia
August 13, 2000

He's in frail health and practically blind, and last week he fell asleep as his state-of-the-nation speech was being read to the parliament.

But for better or worse, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, a 60-year-old Muslim cleric, has inherited the daunting task of building democratic institutions, practically from scratch, in one of the world's most fractious nations.

The annual session of the People's Consultative Assembly that started last week and ends on Friday in Jakarta might have merited scant attention in the United States if Indonesia were not the world's fourth-largest country, its biggest Islamic nation and its third-biggest democracy.

The fate of the Wahid government could determine whether Indonesia - made up of 13,677 islands covering 741,000 square miles with a population of 210 million - continues its rocky experiment with democracy or descends into political, economic and social chaos. Its success or failure as an Islamic democracy will have a huge impact on the rest of the Muslim world.

As if his political problems were not enough, Wahid has suffered at least two diabetic strokes, has been blinded in one eye by diabetes and can hardly see out of the other, and is overweight. He relies on a host of advisers, and critics have accused him of heeding advice from the last person he happened to be talking to, including his masseur. Wahid's problems were apparent in June when a group of U.S. journalists - including this writer - visited Jakarta on a Pew fellowship.

For weeks, members of the People's Consultative Assembly had threatened Wahid with impeachment on numerous counts, such as his failure to revitalize the economy and crack down on government corruption. He was also accused by friend and foe alike of being erratic and at times contradictory, and of allowing a sense of drift to seep into his 10-month-old administration.

Wahid's problems are many - legacies from the autocratic rule of former President Suharto. Western diplomats and Indonesian leaders told the U.S. journalists that several thorny issues demand immediate attention:

Government corruption - Suharto's indictment (coincidentally coming four days before the parliamentary session) was a milestone in the government's crackdown on corruption and nepotism. Suharto, 79 and ailing, is accused of stealing $571 million in state funds to finance business empires for his family and cronies. But Wahid has said he will pardon Suharto if he is convicted. And Wahid's own masseur has admitted taking $4.1 million from a government pension fund; he later said he returned it.

Judicial reform - The government must somehow get rid of corrupt judges, many of them left over from the Suharto years, when justice was dispensed at a price. Attorney General Marzuki Darusman has said he is reluctant to file criminal cases because judges are susceptible to bribery. In addition, the government must initiate legal reforms after more than three decades of judicial fiat under Suharto.

Sectarian, ethnic violence - Sectarian violence in Aceh in the north and Irian Jaya in the east, as well as ethnic clashes in the Maluku islands, have claimed about 4,000 lives - making a mockery of the national motto, "Unity in Diversity." Suharto sympathizers have been blamed for instigating the violence to destabilize the country's fledgling democracy. Some observers say that maintaining Indonesia's "national integrity" is Wahid's most important task.

Economic decline - Indonesia still hasn't recovered from Asia's economic crash, which led to Suharto's resignation in May 1998 after 32 years. The currency, the rupiah, has lost 18 percent of its value this year, trading at 8,725 to the dollar last week; the stock market has plunged 27 percent; 60 percent of the population is below the poverty line; and investment is way down because of the instability.

Wahid's chief economic minister, Kwik Kian Gie, resigned his post on Thursday. Kwik had been the government's prime contact with the International Monetary Fund, which is overseeing a multibillion-dollar rescue and reform package. But he had done little to pacify his critics, telling Dow Jones Newswires earlier this year, "If I were a foreign investor, I wouldn't come to Indonesia."

Military reform - Wahid has kept the once-mighty military out of his administration and installed a civilian, Juwono Sudarsono, as defense minister. But even though the police forces and military were separated last year, they still operate under the Defense Ministry, and their roles are ill-defined. Ironically, Wahid must also revitalize a military that has suffered withering criticism, initially for collaborating in ethnic killings and then for failing to halt them.

Wahid managed to mollify his legislative critics last week with an apology for his government's shortcomings during his tenure. After months of squabbling with the 700-member parliament, Wahid acknowledged his weaknesses, vowing "to do whatever necessary to improve the performance of the government," according to reports from Jakarta.

He also promised to trim at least 10 members from his fractious 32-member Cabinet. On Wednesday, he appointed Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri - the daughter of the country's founder, Sukarno - to oversee day-to-day affairs and bring order to his administration.

The tactic has worked for now. Wahid's chief critic, Assembly Chairman Amien Rais, told reporters: "There will be no impeachment during this session."

Wahid also seems to have appeased anti-government protesters, who have clashed with security forces during past political events but not this one. The government might have pre-empted the demonstrators by charging Suharto with corruption last week - a top demand of the protesters since Suharto was forced from office two years ago. A judge in Jakarta told reporters on Tuesday that Suharto's trial will begin before the end of the month.

But it's only a reprieve for Wahid. Opposition legislators have threatened to schedule a vote of no confidence or begin impeachment proceedings if his performance doesn't improve soon. He was elected to a five-year term in October but is subject to annual review.

When he assumed the presidency in November, Wahid inherited a bureaucracy that had been gutted by Suharto, who had the first and last word in government matters. So in addition to dealing with corruption, violence and a sluggish economy, Wahid must try to erect democratic institutions where none existed.

As formidable as his job might be, the president has little time to show results. Rais told the visiting U.S. journalists: "If given one more chance and he doesn't perform well, I don't think he will survive impeachment."

What happens in the event of Wahid's ouster is anybody's guess, but it could lead to a surge in separatism. Western diplomats and his supporters are hoping that he can make it through his five-year term and establish a democratic precedent in Islamic Indonesia.

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