Letter: SBY plays it safe

Wed, 11/04/2009 1:32 PM  |  Reader's Forum

This is a comment on a commentary article titled "President SBY might forget he has hurt people's sense of justice," (The Jakarta Post, Oct. 31, p. 2)

Thank you for so accurately and courageously putting in writing the very thoughts that are on the minds of all of us Indonesians who are becoming increasingly alarmed and apprehensive about the way things are going in our country.

I, too, voted for the re-election of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, as, at that time, I honestly believed that he was truly a man of honor, a man worthy of admiration. When I voted for him (and this makes it the second time), I also believed that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would have sufficient sterling character and the required great courage to ruthlessly eradicate corruption, injustice, and appalling human rights violations.

Like many fellow Indonesians who voted for him, I, too, was aghast and extremely disappointed upon hearing the President's Friday afternoon speech on Oct. 30 about his view on the arrest of the two KPK deputies, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah. Quantum mutatus ab illo: how changed is he from him whom we know. The "perfect technical explanation" he gave may be a sign that the President seeks a safe way out, thereby, to all intents and purposes, sacrificing the two KPK deputies, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah and throwing them to the wolves.

Like many of my fellow Indonesians, and non-Indonesians too, I am plagued by the following questions: Why does the President seek a safe, and in my eyes, less than honorable, way out? Who is, or are, he and the police protecting? What interests are being protected here? Why haven't the National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri and chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji resigned, and revealed the truth and the absolute truth, as real honorable gentlemen with sterling characters would do?

I would really detest eventually having to say, along with the ancient Roman poet Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), whom I quoted previously: "Disce omnes - from one piece of villainy judge them all." Having seen many times in the past that the ancient proverb: "Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat": "Whom God wants to destroy, He first makes mad" has horrific ways of coming true, I sincerely hope that all those involved in the shameful and unjust treatment of Bibit and Chandra will eventually see the light, and do what is right in God's eyes - before it's too late and our country's honor has deteriorated too far in the world's eyes to be retrieved.

Fellow readers of the Post, please, let us all fervently pray to God and ask that the two KPK deputies, Bibit and Chandra, as well as their deeply suffering families and friends, will emerge from this ordeal alive and well, with their sanity and all of their honestly gotten gains still intact.

Tami Koestomo
Bogor, West Java

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.