Twenty years seems like a long time. But in the age of a nation, it is a mere flash. It seems iike yesterday we were stunned when President Soeharto appeared on television and announced his resignation. Even his vice president Habibie just stood there, looking lost. All the military and civilian prominences looked grim. Observers and activists were happy to receive the news. It came after a long struggle to make Soeharto go away. Now he bows out voluntarily; the nation is spared the agony of a bloody transition. For that we have to thank Soeharto. For everything else we cannot forgive what he did to the nation. The damage he did to our economy, to our morality, to our legal system, to our political system and most of all to our confidence as a nation.
After twenty years we still have hope. But we also have dashed illusions. We had the illusion that like a bad tooth, the replacement would grow quickly and the gums would heal. It was not that easy. Soeharto had been entrenched for so long so that when he left, no one was ready to take over. By default Habibie succeeded Suharto and performed above expectations. Habibie presided over landmark reforms, introduced a free press, released political prisoners, and opened up civil society. The first post-Soeharto year was euphoric. Then disappointment came as illusions were dashed.
The main illusion was that democracy would be our solution. It is still the best option compared to other systems, but democracy has not done the whole job for us. In other countries it also has problems. It is failing in many countries including the United States. We have democracy now and it works. It has it faults but we have less corruption than in previous times and we have more development than ever before.
There are demonstrations and protests that people want to replace the president in 2019. But they want to replace Jokowi through the ballot box. Everyone from activist to military do not see a hostile takeover as an option. Because a hostile takeover would only be faced by the hostility of the people.
The greatest achievement of our republic in 20 years has been that now people are important. It is not just women who say “me too” but it is the citizens. It is professionals, it is young people who say “me too”, “I am part of the republic”. That is what we have achieved in twenty years.
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