<<candidates today include no less than three of Sukarno's daughters and one of Suharto's). It is disturbing that so few eligible civilians can be found in a country the size of Indonesia.>>
Indonesia votes
Financial Times; Apr 05, 2004
Only six years have passed since the overthrow of Suharto, the general who ruled Indonesia for 32 years, and already euphoria has given way to disillusionment. Today's general election will be a much less joyful affair than the post-dictatorship vote of 1999.
Disappointment with democracy is not unusual after the first taste of freedom. In their weariness, Indonesia's 220m people are no different from post-apartheid South Africans or eastern Europeans freed from communism.
Indonesia's short experience of democracy, however, has been particularly troubled. First there was the chaotic presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid, the ailing former head of the Muslim group Nahdlatul Ulama.
Now the country is saddled with Megawati Sukarnoputri, a weak president who rose to power by default and whose aloofness and unease in public makes her one of Asia's most improbable politicians. Her main electoral asset - for her PDI-P party in today's poll and for herself in the country's first direct presidential election in July - is her status as a daughter of Sukarno, Indonesia's independence leader.
Ms Megawati has at least persevered with economic reform and presided over a period of relative political stability. But she has not provided the energetic leadership needed to tackle youth unemployment, disable Islamist terror groups and curb corruption.
If they can negotiate the labyrinth of Indonesian democracy - unwieldy ballot papers, 24 national parties and half a million candidates for local elections - voters may deliver a damning verdict on her government this week.
Opinion polls show that Golkar, the former ruling party of Suharto, has replaced the PDI-P as the country's most popular. In the presidential contest, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general and security minister, is now more popular than Ms Megawati, reflecting a desire among voters for a strong leader.
Another leading candidate is Wiranto, former armed forces chief, who is wanted by United Nations prosecutors to face war crimes charges over the army's operations in East Timor five years ago. He is among those vying for the Golkar nomination, as is Prabowo Subianto, yet another ex-general and former son-in-law to Suharto.
Indonesian voters, it seems, look instinctively to generals or dynasties (candidates today include no less than three of Sukarno's daughters and one of Suharto's). It is disturbing that so few eligible civilians can be found in a country the size of Indonesia.
Perhaps Mr Yudhoyono, who carries little baggage from the Suharto era, is better than some of his fellow-generals. No doubt the country and its 18,000 sometimes unruly islands need a president and a government that know how to exercise power.
Six years into Indonesian democracy, however, neither family ties to former leaders nor knowledge of how to use a gun should be necessary qualifications for an Indonesian president. |
