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DECEMBER 17, 1999 VOL. 25 NO. 50
Figuring Out the President
The method in Wahid's seeming madness
By JOSE MANUEL TESORO Jakarta
In the 50-plus days that Abdurrahman Wahid has been president of Indonesia, he has spent 17 of them abroad, in 13 countries. The latest was a state visit to China, ostensibly to warm historically frosty relations with Beijing. Wahid chatted with Chinese leaders, announced the establishment of a China institute in Jakarta and delivered words of advice to Indonesia's often excluded ethnic Chinese. "The best thing to do is, within one generation, enter into as many fields as possible," he said, "and as Indonesian citizens, develop the economic ground for the country by accepting also non-Chinese."
This was Wahid at his best, playing teacher and president. He did not spring any surprises on his hosts, as he did before visiting Yangon (where he wanted to meet Aung San Suu Kyi) or Manila (where he hoped to see Muslim separatist chief Hashim Salamat). Nor did he make the kinds of comments that offended Malaysia (quipping that most ministers could be found on the golf course) or Australia (whose PM's attitude toward Indonesia he characterized as "childish"). Is Asia's newest and most mercurial leader settling into the role of quiet statesman?
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Wahid's signature leadership style is at one moment spontaneous and shocking, the next secretive and sly. How he plays it depends on where he sees his advantage at the time. Wahid ran his Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, the same way. The style served him well under Suharto; Wahid's maneuvers dazzled the old man. But now that he is himself president, Wahid's stratagems are rocking his own government.
Wahid's coalition partners had expected him to replace Haz with someone from the same faction, the United Development Party, key in the Muslim-affiliated Center Axis that elected Wahid president. Instead, he appointed an academic, prompting speculation that Wahid is trying to sideline the Axis - not to mention its powerful creator Amien Rais, who chairs the policy-making People's Consultative Assembly. Whatever his motives, Wahid has set his coalition partners against each other. His reaction to Haz's "resignation" added to the confusion. "The egg has hatched," he said cryptically, after announcing that three more ministers were suspected of corruption.
Wahid's maneuvers usually have a point. In this case, says Hermawan Sulistiyo of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, "he is strengthening his position." Wahid came into power on the back of an ideologically diverse, finely balanced coalition of military, establishment, nationalist and Muslim interests - all of which had a hand in forming his ungainly cabinet. The president may favor a stealth reshuffle to prove to competing power centers just who is in control.
Already he has faced down the military and his top political minister Gen. Wiranto over the issue of limited martial law for restive Aceh. Wahid also has ignored Akbar Tanjung, head of ex-ruling party Golkar and speaker of parliament. Tanjung berated Wahid for offering Aceh a referendum without consulting parliament, and urged him to visit the troubled region as soon as possible. But a parliamentary commission recommended a referendum anyway. And Wahid has yet to visit Aceh.
Wahid also may want a capable team of technocrats around him. His past schemes have often failed in the execution. "This is his weakness," says Sulistiyo. "He has grand, macro ideas while he lacks enough managerial resources to implement them." Some fret that the National Economic Council that Wahid set up last month will supplant the president's own economic ministers, although the Council is supposed to be an advisory body vested with no policy-making powers.
Most ministers seem unsure of what Wahid wants. More often than not, his aims can be divined only after he has acted. While he has been criticized for traveling so often while domestic issues burn, there is a growing consensus in Jakarta that Wahid, in his overseas forays, is successfully preventing international support for a free Aceh, which in turn strengthens the government's bargaining position with the independence-minded region.
After an informal summit in Manila last month, ASEAN, China, South Korea and Japan declared Aceh an integral part of Indonesia. This week, Gen. Wiranto announced that Jakarta was ready to open talks with the Free Aceh Movement. Independence is a remote option. Is Wahid's approach to the Aceh problem eccentricity - or design? On balance, probably the latter.
- With additional reporting by David Hsieh / Beijing
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