Biggest challenges lurk after the euphoria<\/p>\n
By Yuli Ismartono<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): There is a sense of deja vu to all the frenetic
\npreparations leading up to the June 7 elections. The excitement
\nof unfettered campaigning, the exuberance of media politicking,
\nas well as the chaos and the occasional strife, have happened
\nbefore in the not so distant past.<\/p>\n
As a journalist, I witnessed all this in Cambodia in 1992,
\nRussia in 1993 and South Africa in 1994. It's like watching a
\nvariation of the same play. The stage, the props and the actors
\nare different, but many of the scenes and much of the script are
\nuncannily similar. The common thread among all of those historic
\nelections is an attempt to break with the past and begin a new,
\ndemocratic life. This is what's happening in Indonesia today.<\/p>\n
In Cambodia, the elections were intended to lay to rest more
\nthan a decade of civil war and make the warring factions compete
\nin the political arena rather than in the battlefield.<\/p>\n
Except for the Khmer Rouge, the royalist Funcinpec, the
\nincumbent People's Party of Cambodia (PPC) and the Khmer People's
\nNational Liberation Front (KPNLF) took part in the country's
\nfirst elections since 1970.<\/p>\n
The outcome was predictably far from perfect, despite the
\nheavy presence of United Nations officials and peacekeeping
\nforces and hundreds of international observers. Amid accusations
\nof cheating and vote manipulation, the popular Funcinpec, led by
\nPrince Norodom Sihanouk, was marginally defeated by Prime
\nMinister Hun Sen's PPC.<\/p>\n
The resulting government was a coalition between the two
\nwinning parties, with Ranariddh and Hun Sen as coprime ministers.
\nConsequently, there had to be power sharing in each of the
\ngovernmental ministries. It was a recipe for disaster, proven by
\nthe resumption of armed clashes between the forces of Ranariddh
\nand Hun Sen a few years later. Ranariddh was forced to flee the
\ncountry but came back in time for the recent elections.<\/p>\n
There was no civil war prior to Russia's first multiparty
\nelections in 1993. But there was a climate of uncertainty and
\ntension in the wake of armed clashes between rebellious elements
\nin the military and loyalist troops of President Boris Yeltsin's
\ntransitional government in Moscow.<\/p>\n
Russia was also waking up to the fact that it could no longer
\ntake for granted the support of former satellite states like
\nUkraine, Georgia and other Central Asia republics which had
\nseparated themselves from the Russian federation.<\/p>\n
In addition, the economy was still reeling from the effects of
\ncommunism's downfall, which produced more victims than victors,
\nat least in the initial stages of the free market system's entry.
\nAs the country prepared to go to those landmark polls, the
\nstreets were littered with beggars, mostly the retired and the
\nelderly who were struggling to adjust to the new economic
\nrealities. Yet amid that somber mood, the Russians cast their
\nballots with great expectations for radical changes, pretty much
\nwhat Indonesians are hoping the elections can do to end the
\neconomic crisis.<\/p>\n
In South Africa, as in Indonesia today, the lead up to the
\n1994 elections, the first since the end of apartheid, was truly
\nan emotional experience.<\/p>\n
After years of repression, of being deprived of the right to
\nvote freely, the people were jubilant, much like Indonesians
\ntoday in their campaigns for their political parties. Despite
\nacts of intimidation and terror by right-wing groups, of violence
\namong tribal groups, when election day came, the people stoically
\nstood in line for hours, waiting for that historic moment when
\nthey could finally cast their ballots for a government of their
\nchoice.<\/p>\n
The black majority finally came to power, while the white
\nminority took a back seat. Five years later, following yet
\nanother overwhelming election victory for the African National
\nCongress (ANC) the country still faces a host of unmet
\nexpectations.<\/p>\n
One should not forget the 1990 tragic elections in Myanmar.
\nAlthough Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won by
\na landslide, the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council
\n(SLORC) regime never allowed it to take its rightful place in
\ngovernment. As a consequence, the status quo remains in force.<\/p>\n
There are lessons to be learned from those past elections,
\nnamely that the biggest challenge comes after the euphoria of the
\nelections themselves. The Cambodian experience shows that a
\ngovernment of compromise, where age-old enemies are forced into
\nalliances, is fraught with problems. From the Russian and South
\nAfrican cases, we should be warned about people's high
\nexpectations and a new administration's ability to deliver
\npromises.<\/p>\n
Yet we should also be heartened by the fact that despite all
\nthe obstacles and the pessimism, the elections are a definite
\nmust if the country is to forge ahead toward changes that could
\nlead to a united, integrated, peaceful and prosperous democratic
\nsociety.<\/p>\n
The writer is a former Tempo journalist currently working in
\ncorporate communications.<\/p>",
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