Archipelagic Indonesia: Land of infinite promise<\/p>\n
Tan Chee Leng, Political Observer of Indonesian politics,
\ngraduated from Griffith University<\/p>\n
More than 30 years ago, notable anthropologist Clifford Geertz
\ndescribed Indonesia as \"a country which, unable to find a
\npolitical form appropriate to the temper of its people, stumbles
\non apprehensively from one contrivance to the next.\" The term
\n\"contrivance\" is quite improper. We shall call it \"democratic
\nproject\". Still, Geertz's point is very salient here and begs the
\nquestion: Just how do you go about \"finding a political form
\nappropriate to the temper of its people?<\/p>\n
And one might well further ask: Just how do you take the
\ntemper of a people as diverse as Indonesians? The last time an
\nIndonesian leader attempted to do so, it led to the cataclysmic
\nevent of 1965-1966.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has been undergoing democratic transitions since the
\nbirth of the republic: The transition to Guided Democracy with
\nfirst president Sukarno and the Army as principal architects, the
\ntransition to Pancasila Democracy with Soeharto, the Army, and
\nAmerican trained technocrats as principal architects. The failure
\nof the attempts at nurturing democracy in this country must hold
\nsobering lessons indeed, as Indonesia embarks once again on yet
\nanother democratic transition since the fall of Soeharto in 1998.<\/p>\n
It has been more than four years in what must be the longest
\ndemocratic transition in Indonesian history: The current
\ndemocratic project is still very much a work-in-progress. \"But we
\nare getting there,\" said an Indonesian scholar.<\/p>\n
This article is prompted by comments made by two Indonesian
\nbrothers, one Indonesian politician and an Australian ex-diplomat
\nin an edition of the Far Eastern Economic Review (Oct. 10).<\/p>\n
Andi Mallarangeng, secretary-general of the new National
\nDemocratic Unity Party, said \"We have to show that it is possible
\nto develop a modern party based on issues.\" The magazine article
\nthen counterposed Andi's comment with the remark of his brother,
\nRizal, \"Indonesian people don't change that much. Political
\nloyalties stay basically the same,\" said Rizal, executive
\ndirector of the Freedom Institute who frequently writes the
\nPresident's speeches.<\/p>\n
How would a concerned scholar anxious that Indonesia gets this
\ndemocratic transition right go about deigning the temper of
\nIndonesian people by first deciphering the temper of two brothers
\nwith such contrasting perspectives on whom their people are? And
\nthen there is the comment by the Australian ex-diplomat Kevin
\nEvans: \"Avoid the issues. Personalities, emotional attachments
\nand broad ideological principles remain more important than a
\n'middle-class fetish' to campaign on issues. Stick to a populist
\nscript.\"<\/p>\n
This is an Australian who has had six years of diplomatic
\nexperience in Jakarta, speaks the local language fluently and is
\nrather thoroughly Indonesianized. So, his pithy comments cannot
\nbe casually dismissed.<\/p>\n
So, broadly speaking, there are two approaches here on how the
\npolitical parties would campaign the 2004 direct presidential
\nelections. In the possible absence of the all-powerful People's
\nConsultative Assembly (MPR) to decide the presidency, mass-based
\npolitics would dictate the tempo of electoral campaign.<\/p>\n
The proverbial genie would be let out of the bottle and mutate
\nin either the benign or malign form, depending on whether the
\npolitical parties here emphasize on rational issues-based policy
\nplatforms or play on primordial loyalties.<\/p>\n
Let us hope so. This is not to say that the issues are not in
\nthemselves emotive. They clearly are. The key is to find a non-
\nemotive channel with which to express differences of opinion.
\nTelevised debate of presidential candidates is one possible way
\nof doing it.<\/p>\n
One would hope that the current democratic project which the
\nIndonesians are now crafting tends toward the development of
\nmodern and inclusive political parties with policy agendas that
\nset clear directions for this nation of infinite promise, given
\nits vast natural and human resources. In the end, a properly-
\nfunctioning politic comes down to good governance.<\/p>\n
And that is vitally linked to how the Machiavellian (the term
\nis used here in the good sense) is educated: professionally for
\nthe state of his nation and morally for the soul of his nation.
\nThe test case here is whether the public would be well-served by
\ntheir governance. For the masses at large, there is no better way
\nto determine that than to watch televised debates among those
\npresidential aspirants who claim to represent their aspirations
\nbefore they cast their vote to determine the fate of their
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
Any political leader attempting to take the pulse and temper
\nof his people must note the Rousseau distinction between \"the
\ngeneral will\" and \"the will of all.\" It is the difference between
\n\"judgment about the common good\" versus the \"mere aggregate of
\npersonal fancies and individual desires.\" The Indonesian
\nstatesman who best understands this Rousseau distinction was the
\nlate former vice president Mohamad Hatta who noted the difference
\nbetween cabinet persatuan(unity) and persatean (divisions into
\nsmall pieces like pieces of meat roasted on skewer). When the
\ncabinet, which supposedly leads the nation, is not united as one
\nsingular force advancing the national interest, how can the
\ncountry advance as one united people? That was Hatta's principal
\nconcern.<\/p>\n
As has been said earlier said, this must be the longest
\ndemocratic transition yet, especially as no government, from
\nHabibie onward, has been in power long enough.<\/p>\n
They have all been interim governments in a sense, not yet a
\nregime that, according to the philosopher Leo Strauss, is \"the
\norder, the form that gives society its character.\" So far, the
\nonly regimes that Indonesians have tasted have been the Sukarno
\nand Soeharto versions.<\/p>\n
Let us hope better versions await the future of Indonesia.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/archipelagic-indonesia-land-of-infinite-promise-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }