Democracy out on the streets

By Gwynne Dyer My reply is 'ha, ha, ha'," said Jakarta police commander Sofjan Jacoeb when Indonesia's deposed president, Abdurrahman Wahid, ordered his arrest two weeks ago. "I'm just laughing." It was attitudes like that in the army and police force that made it possible for the People's Consultative Assembly (Parliament) to vote Wahid out of office only 21 months into his five-year term. Wahid was a disaster. This is why the final parliamentary vote to elevate Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri to the job instead on July 24 was unanimous. Even Wahid's own spokesman, Wimar Witoelar, admitted shortly after taking the job: “I can say with all honesty that my man is a good guy. I can also say that my man does not have the competence to govern." The feckless, half-blind and eccentric former president, who has now flown off to the United States to seek medical treatment for 'stress', will not be missed by most Indonesians. Just like most Filipinos won’t miss their former president, Joseph Estrada, whom they forced from power in Manila by street demos last January after his supporters closed down a Senate trial seeking to impeach him on corruption. But there is something worrisome about the way these men lost power. Consider what happened in the Philippines last year. Estrada got elected basically because he had played tough-guy underdog roles in so many locally made films, and millions of poorer Filipinos lacked the sophistication to distinguish between the man and his movie roles. But they also voted for him because they hoped he would stand up to the economic elite who have continued to dominate politics (because they have more money to spend) even after democratisation. Unfortunately, Estrada was more interested in joining the economic elite than in fighting it, and within a year he was mired in corruption charges and facing impeachment by the Philippines Senate. He managed to block impeachment, quite constitutionally, with the help of political allies (whose votes he may well have bought, but nobody can prove that). Whereupon much the same people who brought down Marcos in 1986 took to the streets again in 'people power part two' last January, and forced Estrada out too. He was then arrested on corruption charges -- but in May his supporters took to the streets in what they dubbed 'people power three', trying to storm the presidential palace and oust new President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Three demonstrators were killed, and Arroyo declared a state of rebellion and had a dozen opposition leaders arrested. A national election later in May confirmed that her actions had the support of the majority of Filipinos, but the actions of both sides have gravely undermined constitutional order in the country. Taking it to the streets is becoming a tradition. Now look at Indonesia. The revolution that overthrew the dictator Suharto in 1998 was in the classic Manila mode, and the subsequent election was mostly free and fair. Megawati Sukarnoputri's party got the largest share of votes and most people expected her to emerge as the country's first-ever democratically elected president, but various perfectly legitimate political deals in the new Parliament enabled Wahid to win the presidency instead. It was a mistake the legislators soon came to regret, as Wahid turned out to be incapable of confronting the country's many urgent problems (and apparently not even much interested in doing so). But they gave him a five-year term in circumstances certainly no more questionable than those that brought George W. Bush to the US presidency last year. They had no more constitutional right to turf Wahid out than the Democratic majority in the US Senate would have to start impeachment proceedings against Bush. Constitutional order without democratic politics soon comes to resemble open war. But the urgent need of poor countries for honest leaders and sound policies would be the spring-board of their progress. Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist