Democracy in peril<\/p>\n
The raid by the police at an international conference in
\nSawangan near Jakarta on Friday, and the arrest of 40 of the
\nparticipants, including 32 foreigners, was bizarre, if not
\ndisturbing, to the conscience. You could be forgiven thinking
\nthat news reports of this incident, which also appeared in this
\npaper on Sunday, were mistakenly taken from a leaf of the history
\nbook of a recent bygone era, when undemocratic practices such as
\ndissolving a gathering were normal. Some of us would probably
\nhave wished that Sawangan was not in Indonesia, but in a country
\nwhere people's democratic rights, including the right to freedom
\nof opinion and of assembly, are not respected.<\/p>\n
Alas, there was no mistake. The story was real. The raid, and
\nthe arrests, did take place at the weekend here in Indonesia and
\nnot too far away from the capital. And the raid was conducted by
\nofficers from our very own National Police.<\/p>\n
What is worse was that hours after the police raid of the
\nAsia-Pacific Labor Solidarity Conference on Neoliberalism, a
\ngroup of thugs, using holy Islamic symbols, arrived and
\nphysically attacked the remaining participants. These thugs did
\nnot only seem to have the tacit approval of the police, but they
\nfinished off the police's job in dissolving the gathering. Like
\nthe raid itself, the use of thugs by the police and military to
\ndo its dirty job was normal practice during the Soeharto era.<\/p>\n
The Sawangan incident drew a disturbing picture of Indonesia
\none year into the new millennium. Was it not three years ago that
\nthis country renounced all forms of tyranny and repression? Was
\nit not in 1998 that many young Indonesians paid with their blood,
\nsweat and tears to put an end to the rule of one of the world's
\nlongest-ruling tyrants? Since then, even as the country was
\nstruggling out of the political and economic crises, the nation
\nwas nevertheless fully resolved never to let itself return to
\nthat dark era as far as democracy was concerned.<\/p>\n
There seemed to be a strong commitment among the nation's new
\nleaders since then that the only way to ensure this country never
\nfell back under another tyrannical rule was to protect people's
\nbasic democratic rights, which include their right to freedom of
\nexpression, of speech, and of assembly. There was a national
\nconsensus that the military and the police, both of which were
\nturned into Soeharto's personal tools of repression for over
\nthree decades, would be reformed with the nation's new
\ncommitments to building a democracy. And there was a consensus
\nthat the rule of law must always prevail in this country.<\/p>\n
The nation held a democratic general election and elected a
\npresident in 1999, fully believing that the only way forward
\ntowards long-lasting prosperity for all the people was first to
\nbuild the democratic foundations of the state.<\/p>\n
All of these commitments now sound more like lip service after
\nFriday's police raid in Sawangan. The police and its thug friends
\nhave made a complete mockery of every value and principle that
\nthis nation has been struggling to establish in the last three
\nyears, along with the sacrifices that have gone with this
\nstruggle. With a single stroke, the raid in Sawangan has simply
\nturned back the clock on the nation.<\/p>\n
The police's excuse, that the raid was part of its operation
\nto strengthen security ahead of the special session of the
\nPeople's Consultative Assembly (MPR), is simply unacceptable. The
\nMPR session, scheduled to start on Aug. 1, is a very important
\nconstitutional process to determine the future of embattled
\nPresident Abdurrahman Wahid. The police's explanation sounded all
\ntoo familiar to those who lived through the Soeharto era. Then,
\nas now, security was always the overriding reason why basic
\ndemocratic rights could be waived, or repressed.<\/p>\n
The police's claim that the participating foreigners were
\nviolating their tourist visas by taking part in the conference,
\nis highly debatable. At any rate, the police must have had prior
\nknowledge of the conference, and the involvement of foreigners,
\nand it could have warned the organizers beforehand about the visa
\nregulations. But you do not bust a conference, an international
\none at that, once it has started.<\/p>\n
If the police and its thug friends are allowed to get away
\nwith such unconstitutional acts unpunished, we can be sure that
\nthis will not be the last of such incidents. The day the nation
\nturns a blind eye to its own law enforcement institutions
\nbreaking the law and the constitution is the day this nation
\nkisses goodbye to democracy.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/democracy-in-peril-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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