TAG 054

[Gus Dur begitu banyak berubah. Dia kelihatan tidak berkerja atau membuat lain kerja. Malah kerap tertidur dari terjaga. Dan asyik mengubah pendirian serta tidak memikirkan risiko jangka panjang. Ini membuatkan masalah semakin bercendawan tumbuh merata-rata sehingga begitu menyakitkan mata - tetapi Gus Dur masih bersikap bersahaja dan boleh ketawa. Tetapi teman sekelilingnya sudah rimas dengan sikapnya. Rakyat pula semakin mencurigainya. Dia telah gagal mengambil peluang dan sokongan yang ada untuk menyelamatkan Indonesia lebih segera.

Rakyat Malaysia harus mengambil iktibar dari kejadian di Indonesia betapa seorang presiden yang sudah tidak mampu tetapi cuba menonjolkan kebolehannya juga akan mengundang bencana kepada negara. Ia mungkin tidak berlaku sekarang, tetapi ia bakal menjelang di hari-hari yang mendatang. Gus Dur mewarisi satu negara yang sudah hancur akibat sentuhan Suharto dan rakan-rakan yang terlalu lama dibiarkan. - Editor]

Penterjemah: -MT-

Teman Ketawa Yang Berkurangan

(In Indonesia, fewer laughs for president)

By: Rajiv Chandrasekaran - Washington Post

Rencana ini disediakan khas sebagai menyambut emel daripada peminat di Jakarta.

Presiden Abdurrahman Wahid memang tidak ambil pusing mengenai tatasusila kasta. Dia merupakan seorang yang suka bergosip dengan mudah menggunakan kata-kata yang terpancar di fikirannya, walaupun dia kerap mengguris perasaan rakan politiknya. Puluhan pemimpin politik, tokoh perniagaan dan ramai lagi yang pernah menyokongnya naik menjulang di puncak kuasa yang ada sudah pun bergabung mahukan beliau mundur.

Wahid memang tidak takut berkonfrontasi dengan para saingannya walaupun dia sudah tiga kali dihenyak angin ahmar yang kini sudah pun mencemarkan penglihatannya. Namun, dia terus menyibarkan dakwah toleransi kepada warga negaranya yang kini dimendungi keganasan etnik, keagamaan dan puak pemisah seperti berlakunya pembunuhan kepada 400 pendatang Madura di Borneo (Kalimantan) sejak dua minggu yang lalu disebabkan pribumi Dayak di situ.

Tujuh belas bulan yang lalu, ketika beliau mula berkuasa, beberapa perangainya yang ganjil itu dianggap sebagai satu asset penting, yang membolehkannya menangani masalah Indonesia untuk menerima amalan demokrasi setelah tiga abad dicengkam pemerintahan kuku-besi.

Ternyata, kelakuannya yang serba ganjil itu telah menggugat ketokohannya sehinggakan meruntun negara yang nombor empat ramai penduduknya di dunia ini, menghadapi satu krisis politik yang mungkin berakhir dengan tindakan mendakwanya di mahkamah dan berkemungkinan melakar satu peralihan kuasa yang sungguh menggelodak sehingga menjejaskan stabiliti keseluruhan Asia Tenggara.

Pada bulan yang lalu, parlimen Indonesia telah memberi amaran kepada Wahid kerana gagal mengistiharkan hadiah bernilai $2 juta dollar daripada Sultan Brunei dan juga kerana pembabitannya menyalahgunakan $4.1 juta dana agensi pengagihan makanan kerajaan yang dilakukan oleh orang-orangnnya yang mendakwa mereka bertindak bagi pihaknya termasuk juga tukang urutnya. Walaupun siasatan telah membuktikan beliau tidak terbabit secara peribadi dalam dua rancangan penipuan itu, amaran mereka itu akan berkesudahan dengan tuduhan mahkamah terhadapnya tidak lama lagi.

WAHID PERTAHANKAN DIRI

Wahid yang berusia 60 tahun itu masih bertegas betapa dia tidak bersalah dan enggan mundur. Dalam satu wawancara terbaru, dia berkeyakinan bahawa usaha menghukumnya itu adalah 'dipelopori oleh golongan elitis yang sengaja mahu mengkucar-kacirkan negara.'

Sambil duduk selesa di ruang tamu di istana presiden, Wahid nampak riang sambil memberikan gambaran bagaimana dia bertujuan untuk memulihkan kuasanya.

Para pengkritik Wahid berkata dia tidak ambil pusing terhadap pergolakan politik, ekonomi dan masalah sosial terutama sekali puak pemisah dan keganasan puak-puak yang berkemungkinaan mendesak negara itu meniru pergolakan Balkan dulu.

KRISIS

Semakin ramai para pegawai kerajaan dan analis yang berpendapat bahawa Indonesia tidak mampu meladeni perangai presiden yang tidak ikhlas itu. Ketika krisis Borneo (Kalimantan) meledak , Wahid telah menolak seruan ahli politik lain agar memendekkan lawatannya selama 15 hari ke Timur Tengah dan Afrika, dengan berkata bahawa keadaan ' sedang terkawal' walaupun ketika para perusuh di kalangan sukarelawan pribumi sedang mengganas memenggal kepala pendatang sehingg'kan pasukan keselamatan lari lintang-pukang.

"Ternyata betapa dia gagal menjalankan tugasnya," kata Fikri Jufri, penerbit Tempo, majalah mingguan terbesar di negara itu.

Di tahap awal kekuasaannya, Wahid telah menerima pujian kerana membebaskan para banduan politik regim Suharto , sambil memberi kebebasan kepada akhbar dan memecat ketua angkatan tentera Jeneral Wiranto yang telah bertanggungjawab kepada kemusnahan Timur-Timur. Wahid cuba menonjolkan imej negaranya dengan melakukan beberapa dozen lawatan keluar negara di mana dia mampu menarik sokongan negara tuanrumah dan berjaya mendapat sokongan dan bantuan kewangan.

Kenikmatan itu tidak bertahan lama kerana mengikut beberapa orang yang rapat dengannya, Wahid terlupa betapa dia naik secara 'accidental president' sedangkan parti politiknya cuma memenangi 11 persen kerusi parlimen. Di Indonesia, sesaorang presiden itu dipilih oleh para perwakilan, dan Wahid telah berjaya memintas Megawati Sukarnoputri dengan meraih sokongan para konservatif dalam parti Islam yang lain, yang memang tidak berkenan kepada calon presiden perempuan. Megawati menjadi Timbalan Presiden dan Wahid telah menubuhkan satu kabinet campuran yang mengambil kira ahli parti timbalannya itu dan juga daripada Parti Golkar yang pernah memerintah dulu serta beberapa parti islam yang lain. Sayangnya, Wahid telah meminggirkan hampir semua rakan kongsinya.

Wahid telah menyentuh perasaan Megawati yang mempunyai saham besar untuk menentukan keteguhan kuasanya, dengan memungkiri janji-janji untuk memberikan kuasa mentadbir urusan harian negara dan dengan berjenaka mengenai kelakuan beliau pula.

"Sepatutnya Gus Dur tidak memusuhi parlimen ataupun Megawati," kata seorang bekas penasihat Wahid, sambil menggunakan nama kemesraan beliau. "Mana boleh dia lakukan semua itu sedangakan dia mempunyai hanya 11 persen kuasa sahaja."

Tetapi, Wahid memang amat kerasan mengeluarkan arahan yang tidak boleh dimungkiri, kerana itulah perjalanan hidupnya selama ini. Sebelum menjai presiden, dia menguruskan Nahdatul Ulama, yang mempunyai keahlian 30 juta insane. Inilah organisasi sosial terbesar di negara Islam, yang telah diasaskan oleh datuknya dan diambilalih oleh bapanya. Walaupun dia memang menunjukkan komitmen terhadap prinsip demokrasi, namun dia mengetuai NU itu laksana seorang diktator berhati besi.

"Nahdatul Ulama adalah satu dinasti keluarga, di mana apa yang keluar dari mulutnya dianggap kata-kata keramat belaka," kata penasihatnya itu. "Gus Dur menganggap Indonesia laksana satu versi NU yang terbaru. Dialah gurunya dan negara itu adalah para pelajarnya."

Akibatnya, dia mudah memberikan arahan dan menukarnya semula tanpa memikirkan kesan politik daripada tindakannya. Orang yang rapat dengan Wahid berkata bahawa perangainya yang sukar ditelah itu bermula daripada satu serangan angin ahmar pada 1998. "Dulu dia memang seorang yang berpendirian tegas," kata seorang bekas pembantu kanannya. "Keadaan sudah berubah, dia mudah tersentuh perasaan dan merasa kurang selesa dan mudah melenting dan menyerang. Dia lupa mengenai masa dan cara menangani masalah secara bijaksana."

Oleh kerana kadar penglihatan yang terhad, dia bergantung harap kepada para pembantu dan ahli keluarganya untuk membacakan akhbar, surat-surat dan laporan rasmi. Mengikut mereka yang rapat dengannya, kerja-kerja itu bukannya satu proses yang enteng. Pernah terjadi satu peristiwa satu minggu sebelum meledaknya beberapa letupan bom yang merobek beberapa gereja di seluruh negara menjelang Upacara Krismas. Jabatan risikan telah menghantar satu laporan kepada istana memberi ingatan kemungkinan berlakunya keganasan menjelang cuti lebaran. "Cara pengendaliannya tidak bersistem dan tidak pula menyeluruh," kata Greg Barton, seorang akademik Australia yang sedang menulis biografi presiden.

Di kalangan orang dalamannya, hanya tiga insane yang amat dipercayai oleh Wahid: anak perempuannya Yenny, yang berusia 26 tahun, adiknyha Umar Wahid, seorang pakar perubatan; dan anak saudaranya Syafullah Jusuf, yang mengetuai pergerakan pemuda NU yang mempunyai pengkut berjumlah 400,000 ahli dan yang telah berikrar untuk mempertahankan kuasa presiden dengan apa cara jua.

Para pembantunya berkata Yenny, bekas pegawai penyelidik akhbar yang tidak ada pengalaman berpolitik, merupakan de fakto ketua staf, yang merancang segala jadualnya, menyaring para tamunya; dan memilih apa yang perlu dibacakan kepada telinganya. Beberapa pembantu berkata: Yenny kerap mengenepikan berita buruk daripada pengetahuan bapanya untuk mengelakkan bapanya terganggu kerana tekanan darahnya diawasi empat kali setiap hari. "Dia mahu mengembirakannya dengan berita ," kata seorang penasihat. "Dia tidak mahu bapanya berada dalam keadaan yang tertekan."

Kebelakangan ini Wahid nampaknya lebih berminat dengan krisis politik yang berbeza: Bagaimana Presiden Harry Truman mengnyahkan Jeneral Douglas MacArthur. Dia telah mendengar buku audio mengenai peristiwa itu yang dianggapnya persis cara dia memecat Wiranto. "kita ada banyak persamaan," kata Wahid sambil mencadangkan betapa dia seperti juga Truman akan mewariskan satu legasi selepas lama dia meninggalkan kuasa.

Sambil mengakui bahawa kepimpinan yang penuh keegoannya itu menjadi penyebab utama kepada masalah yang menghantuinya, Wahid telah bersetuju untuk mendapatkan khidmat para penasihat poltik yang professional. "Saya akan serahkan semua itu kepada pakar-pakar untuk menentukannya," kata beliau. "Kita akan melihatkan satu rupa kuasa presiden yang berbeza selepas ini dan seterusnya." Tetapi, ramai orang yang rapat dengan Wahid, baik dulu, kini dan mungkin selamanya memang meragukan kemampuannya untuk berubah sikap.

Kata seorang bekas penasihatnya; "Usahlah kita mudah tertipu memikirkan betapa dia boleh dibentuk ataupun berubah."

Rencana Asal:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/539221.asp

In Indonesia, fewer laughs for president

Wahid's antics criticized as national crises mount

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran

THE WASHINGTON POST

JAKARTA, Indonesia, March 5 - President Abdurrahman Wahid doesn't worry much about decorum. He leads the world's most populous Muslim country, but he prays only occasionally. He is a cleric who knows the Koran by heart, but he loves to crack risque jokes. He meets visitors at 5 a.m. dressed in tight plaid shorts and a striped polo shirt, scratching his bare feet as he talks. He falls asleep when he is bored, no matter if he is attending a cabinet meeting or an important session of parliament. He is an inveterate gossip with a penchant for blurting out whatever is on his mind, even if it risks alienating his political allies.

Legions of political leaders, business executives and others who had eagerly backed his ascension to the presidency have started to call for his resignation.

WAHID IS ALSO unafraid of confronting opponents despite three strokes that have left him nearly blind. And he preaches tolerance in a country wracked by religious, ethnic and separatist violence such as the killings of 400 Madurese migrants in Borneo over the last two weeks by indigenous Dayaks.

When he took office 17 months ago, Wahid's oddities were seen by many as an asset, enabling him to keep foes off balance as he helped Indonesia embrace democracy after more than three decades of authoritarian rule.

But now, Wahid's erratic behavior has turned into his biggest liability, helping to plunge the world's fourth-most populous country into a political crisis that could result in his impeachment and a potentially violent transfer of power with broad destabilizing effects across Southeast Asia.

Last month, parliament censured Wahid for failing to declare a $2 million gift from the sultan of Brunei and for his alleged involvement in the theft of $4.1 million from the government's food distribution agency by people who said they were acting on his behalf, including his masseur. Although investigators have found no evidence that the president benefited personally from either scheme, the rebuke likely will lead to an impeachment vote this summer.

The graft scandals pale in comparison to the billions former dictator Suharto is alleged to have siphoned from the national treasury, but they have become a catalyst for a growing frustration with Wahid's unorthodox leadership style. Legions of political leaders, business executives and others who had eagerly backed his ascension to the presidency have started to call for his resignation. That has prompted some of his most loyal supporters to hold menacing street protests, burn down the offices of a rival political party and threaten to engage in violent retribution if he is forced from office.

WAHID DEFENDS HIMSELF

The avuncular, 60-year-old Wahid has insisted that he did nothing wrong and that he will not resign. In a recent interview, he maintained that the impeachment effort is being "driven by political elites who want to destabilize the nation."

Sitting in the ornate reception room of the presidential palace, a relaxed Wahid provided few specifics about how he hopes to revive his presidency, laughingly insisting that he falls asleep when he is told about parliament's criticism of him. In fact, he has such a proclivity to doze that his advisers have taken to placing a vibrating mobile phone in his shirt pocket so they can call and awaken him during meetings.

Wahid's critics contend that he has paid little attention to the sprawling archipelago's intractable political, economic and social problems, particularly separatist and sectarian violence that threatens to Balkanize the country. Instead, they argue, he has effectively put the country on autopilot while he spends his time sparking political crises.

TIMES OF CRISIS

A growing number of government officials and analysts maintain that Indonesia can ill afford such presidential inattention. Guerrillas in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra, and in Irian Jaya, on the Indonesian half of New Guinea, are waging increasingly bloody rebellions for independence. Fighting between Muslims and Christians in the Moluccas, formerly know as the Spice Islands, has claimed more than 4,000 lives in the past two years.

As the Borneo crisis flared, Wahid dismissed calls from other politicians to cut short a 15-day trip to the Middle East and Africa, saying the situation was "under control," even as mobs of indigenous vigilantes bent on slaughtering migrants had overwhelmed security forces.

"His presidency has been a big disappointment," said Fikri Jufri, the publisher of Tempo, the country's largest weekly newsmagazine. "He hasn't done all the good things we hoped he would do because he has been so busy creating all sorts of new problems for himself."

In the first months of his presidency, Wahid quickly won praise for freeing Suharto's political prisoners, promising to allow a free press and taking on the military by firing the armed forces chief, Gen. Wiranto, whose men were responsible for the destruction of East Timor. Wahid set about trying to raise Indonesia's profile on the world stage by jetting off to dozens of countries, where he invariably charmed his hosts and extracted pledges of financial support.

`ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT'

Before long, though, say people close to him, he began to forget that he was Indonesia's "accidental president," whose political party holds only 11 percent of the seats in parliament. In Indonesia, the president is elected by legislators, and Wahid was able to outmaneuver front-runner Megawati Sukarnoputri by winning the support of conservative Islamic parties, which were opposed to a woman president. Megawati became his vice president, and Wahid established a coalition cabinet that included members of her party as well as the former ruling Golkar party and Islamic parties.

But Wahid quickly alienated almost all of his partners. He rankled the Islamic parties by advocating the establishment of trade relations with Israel and a lifting of a ban on communism. He earned the wrath of Megawati's party - the largest in parliament - by firing from his cabinet one of its star members, whom the president accused of corruption without offering any evidence. When called before parliament to explain his actions, Wahid called the legislators a "bunch of kindergartners."

He also has irritated Megawati, whose support is necessary for his political survival, by reneging on a pledge he made last summer to give her more responsibility for day-to-day government operations and joking that she is having extramarital affairs. Fed up, she eventually ordered members of her party to vote for Wahid's censure, a motion that passed 393 to 4.

"Gus Dur never should have antagonized parliament or Megawati," said one former adviser to Wahid, using his nickname. "You don't do that with 11 percent of the vote. It was politically inept."

Wahid, however, has spent his life issuing unquestioned orders. Before becoming president, he ran the 30-million-member Nahdlatul Ulama, the world's largest Muslim social organization, which his grandfather founded and his father ran. Although he is committed to democracy in principle, he headed the NU as a benevolent dictator.

"The NU was a family kingdom, where what he said was the word of God," the adviser said. "To him, Indonesia is just a larger version of the NU. He is the teacher and nation is his pupils."

REVERSALS COMMON

As a consequence, he tends to make decisions - and reverse himself - without regard to the political fallout. He said he would fire Wiranto, then he said he wouldn't and then he finally did, all within a day. In a surprise announcement, he suggested that residents of Aceh could hold a referendum to decide whether they wanted to be independent, but then quickly rescinded the offer. He said Suharto's fugitive son, Tommy, had been apprehended by the police but was allowed to escape-an incident police officials deny ever took place.

People close to Wahid say some of his unpredictable behavior stems from a severe stroke in 1998. "Before, he was a real targeted shooter," said one former senior aide. "That has changed. He gets emotional and insecure and defensive - and he attacks. He forgets about timing and putting things in context."

Because of his visual impairment, he relies on aides and family members to read him newspapers, correspondence and official reports. But those close to him say it is a haphazard process. On some days, for instance, nobody will tell him the contents of the morning papers.

A week before a coordinated series of bombs ripped through churches across the country on Christmas Eve, intelligence officials sent a report to the presidential palace warning of possible violence over the holiday season. The report was given to an aide who forgot to read it to Wahid, people familiar with the incident said.

"His briefings are not systematic and they're not complete," said Greg Barton, an Australian academic who is writing a biography of the president.

SMALL INNER CIRCLE

Wahid's inner circle consists of only three people he trusts implicitly: his 26-year-old daughter, Yenny; his brother, Umar Wahid, who is a physician; and his nephew Syafullah Jusuf, who heads the 400,000-member youth wing of the NU, which has pledged to defend the president at all costs.

Aides say Yenny, a former newspaper researcher with no political experience, functions as his de facto chief of staff, shaping his schedule, screening visitors and selecting what is read to him.

Some aides say she glosses over bad news to avoid upsetting her father, whose blood pressure is monitored four times a day. "She wants to say everything is fine to him," one close adviser said. "She doesn't want him to worry."

These days Wahid appears more interested in a different political crisis: President Harry Truman's firing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. He has been listening to an audio book about the incident, which he likens to his dismissal of Wiranto. "We have a lot in common," Wahid said, suggesting that he, like Truman, will see his legacy grow long after his term in office.

Acknowledging that his eccentric leadership style has been responsible for much of his problems, Wahid promised to hire and rely on professional political advisers. "I will let the experts decide more," he said. "It's going to be a different presidency from now on."

But many people close to Wahid-current and former advisers as well as friends-doubt that he will be able to alter his behavior.

"We shouldn't be fooled into thinking he can be molded or changed," said one former adviser. "He can't. We just have to decide whether his good traits outweigh his bad ones."