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Indonesia: None of it happened

Source
Green Left Weekly - August 23, 2000

Max Lane – The current session of Indonesia's parliament, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), began with much criticism of President Abdurrahman Wahid by politicians and threats that he would be deposed, forced to appoint a prime minister or made to surrender significant power to vice-president Megawati Sukarnoputri. None of it happened.

Wahid remains president and his new cabinet will be announced on August 24 or 25. He remains at the centre of Indonesia's governing structures.

He did announce to the MPR that Megawati would be given more governmental tasks but emphasised that she would still be responsible to the president. Under the constitution, the formal function of the vice-president is that of an assistant to the president.

Some politicians threatened to have the MPR pass a decree making Megawati head of government and Wahid head of state. This did not happen either. Megawati's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle opposed the MPR formalising a new status for her. It acted under Megawati's instructions that the party keep within the constitution.

Wahid announced that the number of ministers in the new cabinet would be trimmed and that its new structure, though not its membership, would be devised by three coordinating ministers.

The MPR's attacks on Wahid were a reflection of the struggle between the main parties, all of which have been represented in the cabinet, to increase their influence in the government. This struggle will continue during the next four years until the next general elections. The outcome of the struggle to change the balance of power inside the cabinet will become clearer when the new cabinet line-up is announced.

As the factional struggle unfolded, it became clear that many major decisions were to be postponed. Several changes to the constitution now will not be considered for another year.

It seems that the mooted repeal of the ban on the "spreading Marxism-Leninism" has been dropped after all parties, except Wahid's National Awakening Party, indicated they would oppose it.

All parties, except the rightist Star and Crescent Party, supported the Indonesian military (TNI) and police maintaining 38 representatives in the MPR until 2009. There were several student protests outside the MPR against this.

The TNI had a victory with the passing of an MPR resolution which precludes army officers from being tried for past human rights violations. This proposal was rejected when discussed in the commission stage, but mysteriously reappeared in the final version of the resolution.

The one setback for the TNI was the new requirement for the armed forces commander-in-chief and police commander to be vetted by the House of Representatives before being appointed by the president.

Still to be voted upon, but likely to be passed, is a new law that will decentralise government administration and introduce a federal system. Specific percentages on revenue derived from the exploitation of natural resources are to be allocated to the lower levels of government. It is estimated that between 30% to 40% of civil servants will move from working for the national government to the regional government.

The one topic that received almost no discussion was Indonesia's social and economic crisis. Wahid did refer to it in his state of the nation report, emphasising the social breakdown that was occurring. However, nobody in the MPR questioned the basic thrust of the Wahid government's implementation of International Monetary Fund-prescribed austerity, deregulation and privatisation.

Concern was focused on correcting Wahid's "style of governing" and the need for a better "economic team" in cabinet to more effectively implement IMF policies.

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