If you're a fan of cowboy movies, you'll know the phrase used in every Wild West stick-up, "Your money or your life!" Not much of a choice, huh? Money you can earn again, but if you lose your life, that's that, so most people just reach for their wallets not their revolvers.
And if you're a fan of Indonesian politics, then you'll know that Taufik Kiemas, the newly elected speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat, or MPR) found himself in a similar situation. Only his choice was not between money or his life, but between money (and power) or his wife.
His wife? As every Indonesian probably knows, Taufik is married to Megawati Soekarnoputri, head of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) since 1996, and Indonesia's fifth president (July 2003-Oct. 20, 2004). So Taufik's CV will record that before becoming speaker of the MPR, his main claim to fame was a unique one in Indonesian history: The one and only Mr. Mega, as he was also, for a while, our one and only First Gentleman!
Don't get me wrong, it's not like he was a househusband, doing the dishes and watering the plants at the palace - far from it! If anything, he was "the man behind the woman on the throne". In fact, after reformasi began in 1998, Taufik quickly became famous as a wheeler-dealer politician busy redrawing Indonesia's political map.
This wasn't just because he was Megawati's husband (although that sure helped!), but also because he was chairman of the Advisory Board of the PDI-P. Some even say he was the "brain" behind the PDI-P.
So why did "TK" (as he is often known) take the new MPR job, one he was obviously plonked into without training or preparation, judging from the phenomenal blunders he committed at Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's (SBY) recent inauguration? He constantly messed up Yudhoyono's name, neglecting to name other key people. But, as acutely embarrassing as they were, her hubby's verbal gaffes didn't embarrass Megawati on the day because she was conspicuously (if predictably) absent. This was not because she was worried about TK's fluffing it, but because she wants to be seen as leader of the opposition . and hubby wasn't helping.
You see, the PDI-P never officially backed TK's nomination for speaker of the MPR, which was instead supported by SBY's Democratic Party, and Megawati feels deep personal animosity toward Yudhoyono, who resigned from her Cabinet when she was president in order to successfully run against her in the following elections. The result is that her party seems to be split, with Mega wanting the PDI-P to be the opposition, while TK prefers cuddling up to her biggest enemy.
After all, how can you claim to be in opposition if you're the chair of the MPR, and the President backed you to be there? Is TK for Mega (his wife and party), or is he for SBY (power and money)? It's hard to resist the conclusion that SBY and his party are trying to split the PDI-P by seducing a willing Taufik Kiemas, isn't it?
And what about the latter's motives? It's equally hard to resist the temptation to use the expression "rats leaving a sinking ship", but in essence that's what's happening here, folks. Legend has it that rats traveling on a ship have an almost supernatural "psychic" ability to predict the future and know when the vessel they're on is going to sink.
In fact, this is more likely because they live deep in the hold and in the bilge around the keel. If a ship starts to leak, the rats are first to know because they live where the water comes in first.
In any case, Taufik Kiemas has a reputation for knowing which way the (political) winds blow, and it looks to me like he has seen that the PDI-P is sinking fast. Like a rodent in the hold, he has realized that the PDI-P's future is limited and he's hedging his bets by getting a foothold with the governing group. Of course, this spells (even more) trouble for the PDI-P: If TK is indeed the brain behind the PDI-P, the party may soon be in dire need of a brain transplant!
But quite apart from the now increasingly obvious personal-is-political split between Mega and Taufik, his not-so-subtle realignment is also a big public admission that the PDI-P's glitter has faded, and it may never win power again. TK, one of the biggest players in the land, has tacitly acknowledged that the PDI-P's constantly shrinking election results (now at 14 percent, less than half its 1999 result of 33.7 percent) means it is no longer a major party, opposition or not.
Some people say that the chaos of reformasi ended with SBY's victory this year, and we are now entering a period of democratic consolidation. But I think it's more like we're going through a convulsion as our political panorama reinvents itself.
The two parties that were once the biggest, the Golkar Party and the PDI-P, are basically stuffed and heading down fast, while the Democratic Party and, to a lesser extent, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) are on the rise. This is a massive transformation of the political landscape of post-Soeharto Indonesia, and like any earthquake, we'll see a whole lot of shakin' goin' on, with tremors and aftershocks persisting for a while to come.
And what about TK and Mega's future? Well, personally I doubt she'll miss chubby hubby all that much - and he only has to drop the "IP" to change from PDI-P to PD and formalize his betrayal. So the sooner they do it the better, given that all these oldies will probably be long gone from politics by the time the next elections come around in 2014. Time to clear off now, all you leaders with expired use-by dates, and let a new generation of leaders start emerging!
The writer (www.juliasuryakusuma.com) is the author of Julia's Jihad.
