How to describe this urbane gentleman who so smoothly changed his image as Soeharto's loyal man to that of defender of democracy and development? What should we do to stop him from manipulating the proreform forces and prevent him from restoring the power of the New Order regime? Who should be blamed for this messy situation? The gentleman we have in mind, of course, is Akbar Tandjung. Akbar's latest maneuver to delay the final selection of the Golkar Party's presidential candidates from the original schedule – in February – to after April's general election has disappointed the seven other Golkar presidential candidates, who can do nothing more than grumble.
Akbar and his inner circle have argued that the delay is needed to ensure that the party remains solid, at least until the elections. It is not difficult, however, to find another reason: Akbar needs more time for consolidating his ranks because he also has an eye on the presidency.
The status of party chairman, even as a convict in a corruption case, has apparently not diminished the man's unyielding control over Golkar, which was the ruling party under the Soeharto regime.
Many observers believe that the Supreme Court will eventually acquit him at the "appropriate" time, which would pave the way toward his becoming not just the country's kingmaker in next year's presidential election, but possibly the king himself. Many also believe that he has the capability to bring Golkar back as the country's strongest political party in next year's general election.
The fact is that even his severest foes, or those who hate everything that has anything to do with Golkar, will find it is difficult not to concede to his sophistication in politics. He took over the party's leadership just a few months after Soeharto's downfall in May 1998.
As a party founded by Soeharto, Golkar, at one time, lost its credibility because it was regarded as one of the most responsible parties for the megacorruption and gross abuses of power committed by Soeharto. Now, more people are turning to the party for help. They tend to ignore its past wrongdoings because Golkar's track record in development and in economic achievements is much more impressive than the political parties that came into being after Soeharto's fall.
At present, the Golkar political machine seems the best prepared to contest next year's election. Its human resources are well established.
With all respect for Akbar and Golkar, however, we must say that his strength lies not in his own brilliance or because the party is irreplaceable. Both take benefit from the weakness and greed of the politicians and political parties who flaunt themselves as reformists, but have failed to deliver on the promises they made in the 1999 general election. All of them vowed to create a strong civil society, uphold the supremacy of the law and punish anyone who stole money from the state and the people.
Let's take a look at the performance of the major political parties established since Soeharto's fall, such as Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the National Awakening Party (PKB).
Megawati has been acting more as a dictator within the party than as a democrat. As for Amien Rais, can he convince PAN voters that his party has met its obligations promised in the run-up to the 1999 election? PKB was successful in bringing its cofounder, Abdurrahman Wahid, to the presidency in 1999 but his humiliating fall two years later left a serious wound for the party.
It is highly likely that none of these political parties will have the guts to say that their politicians are as clean as they present themselves to be, or that they have been able to realize their stated political aims.
They have only themselves to blame if more and more people seem to be giving consideration to voting for Golkar next year. After all, apart from its huge sins of the past, the party is at least noted in the collective memory as having had an impressive success story in the field of national development – never mind if that "success" was paid for with huge sums of borrowed money that must now be repaid.
Whatever one may say, for deprived people that past track record is much more impressive than the empty promises made by politicians who describe themselves as true reformists and true democrats.
Therefore, we urgently call on all the proreform forces to stop blaming each other if they still want Indonesia to be able to escape its past and continue to march toward achieving the dream of establishing a healthy civil society. The selfishness and the shortsighted attitude of these politicians has not only cost them their own future, but, more importantly, that of the country's stakeholders, too. We must therefore ensure that the Supreme Court can and will act as the last bastion of justice when it issues its verdict on Akbar Tandjung. Whether the court upholds the two-year verdict on Akbar or he is acquitted, the verdict must be based on legal considerations only, and nothing else.