Power indeed serves as a great magnet with its gripping force that can render those in authority helpless and reluctant to give it up. Few have managed to control their power and eventually leave the public arena with grace.
The lure of power offering great fame and clout has always tempted everybody, even those already trying to shed it. This is what has happened to one of the country's reform exponents, M. Amien Rais, currently the chairman of the central consultative assembly of the National Mandate Party (PAN).
Along with Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, Megawati Soekarnoputri and Yogyakarta's Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, Amien was publicly recognized as one of the main actors in the national movement to force Soeharto to end his 32-year iron-fisted rule.
Gus Dur and Megawati in turn became president, the Sultan remains in his position, and Amien became the Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). When he ended his term in 2004, Amien announced his plan to quit politics.
But signs of Amien's imminent comeback through his recent display of strong influence once under his command could be noticed as he convened a national coordinative meeting for PAN for the 2009 general elections, in Jakarta at the end of last month.
In the absence of PAN chairman Soetrisno Bachir, who was reportedly receiving medical treatment in Singapore, the meeting was ostensibly judging the failure of his leadership in the 2009 legislative elections, with only 6,254,580 votes (around 6 percent) for the party.
The disharmony between both PAN leaders had begun when Amien met with 28 regional PAN executives from across Indonesia, at his residence in Yogyakartaon April 19.
The meeting, directing PAN toward a coalition with the Democratic Party as the election frontrunner, was not attended by Soetrisno, who had earlier planned an alliance between PAN and Prabowo Subianto of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra).
Later, the PAN congress in Yogyakarta agreed to nominate Hatta Radjasa as its candidate to run alongside Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY).
Amien certainly had his own reasons to "rescue" PAN after the party sustained a continuing decline in votes gained in the general elections from 1999 (7.12 percent) to 2004 (6.4 percent). Yet Amien's move to "ignore" Soetrisno was seen by many circles as a "halfhearted" transfer of authority that would considerably harm the future of PAN, particularly in terms of cadre formation. Moreover, the process of regeneration in 2005 was largely determined by Amien's own initiative.
The inconsistency of Amien was even more apparent when PAN institutionally supported SBY, who picked Boediono as his running mate (instead of Hatta) for the 2009 presidential elections. Later he made controversial and unproductive statements by describing the Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto pair representing a coalition between the Golkar Party and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) as more salable than SBY-Boediono. PAN activists were also given freedom to make their own choices, with the exception of PAN executives.
A flashback indicates that the small vote gains secured by PAN - set up by Amien in 1998 in a spirit of reform - may have been greatly affected by his behavior. He was once known as a reformist icon supported by students and society as well as successfully building pressure to unseat president Soeharto.
But repeated comments he has made on various occasions, such as his dislike of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, could become boring for his audiences, because while they may agree with what he is saying, they may also grow tired of hearing "the same old song". They want progress from Amien.
The problems with PAN fall squarely on Amien. It by no means implies he is a bad character, but rather that he has failed to make PAN an independent party. As a figure striving for reforms, Amien has lacked awareness that his approach was largely opposed to the spirit of reform, for example in his building of centralized leadership and the denial of a democratic climate within PAN itself.
The writer is a member of The Jakarta Post's Opinion Desk.
