Government wants to keep state powerful: Analyst<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government of President B.J. Habibie has
\nmoved to consolidate the power of the state even as it forges
\nahead with democratization programs, an American scholar has
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
William Liddle, a long-time Indonesia observer from Ohio State
\nUniversity in America, said the government under Habibie, the
\nArmed Forces (ABRI) under Gen. Wiranto and the ruling political
\ngroup Golkar under Akbar Tandjung all have a stake in keeping the
\nstate powerful.<\/p>\n
\"I'm more and more impressed with the power of the state,\" he
\ntold The Jakarta Post yesterday.<\/p>\n
To illustrate his point, Liddle said he had been told of an
\nAmerican non-governmental organization which had the phones in
\nits Jakarta office tapped. This surveillance came to an end on
\nMay 21 when president Soeharto resigned, but resumed two weeks
\nago, he said, declining to disclose the name of the organization.<\/p>\n
Pijar, a vocal human rights organization, also told him it has
\nlearned that the government has stepped up surveillance of its
\nactivities in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Although freedom of the press is flourishing, Liddle said the
\nstate in Indonesia is still very powerful, and the government,
\nGolkar and ABRI all have an interest in maintaining the status
\nquo.<\/p>\n
\"Wiranto is becoming a better and better politician now,\" he
\nadded.<\/p>\n
He believed that in gearing up for next year's general
\nelection, Golkar was concerned not so much about whether Habibie
\nwould stand for election as \"producing a president.\"<\/p>\n
\"It could be Akbar, Wiranto or Bambang,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The last name refers to Lt. Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,
\nABRI's Chief of Sociopolitical Affairs, who struck Liddle as
\nsomeone who could convince the people that the Armed Forces
\nunderstood the need to uphold democracy.<\/p>\n
Liddle warned however that if reformists failed to get the
\nupper hand in the current critical times, the state would
\ndominate the people again as it did during the Soeharto era.<\/p>\n
\"They (government and military bureaucrats) support reforms
\nbut they don't have an ideology in the way that Amien, Mega or
\nGus Dur do,\" he said, referring to the prominent pro-reform
\nfigures Amien Rais, Megawati Soekarnoputri and Abdurrahman Wahid.<\/p>\n
While the military is scaling down its sociopolitical role
\nin keeping with public demand, it will become dominant again if
\nthe civilian government turns out to be too weak to hold the
\nnation together, he said.<\/p>\n
However, Liddle said that the threat of ABRI resuming its
\ndominant position in politics should not be exaggerated.<\/p>\n
The Armed Forces has been cornered by recent revelations of
\natrocities, he said, adding that more such cases would emerge in
\nthe coming weeks.<\/p>\n
The military, which has always prided itself on being the
\nguardian of the country and the people, does not have the
\ninitiative in the drive for reform this time around, he said.<\/p>\n
\"ABRI did not save Indonesia from Soeharto. It cannot claim
\nthat it saved the country,\" he said, adding that the honor
\nbelonged to Amien Rais, university students who led the
\ndemonstrations against Soeharto, and other leaders of the reform
\nmovement.<\/p>\n
Liddle said the reformists appeared to have been pushed aside
\nby Habibie, who in spite of being seen as a weak President, has
\nsucceeded in \"buying political legitimacy\" and moving to the
\ncenter ground of national politics.<\/p>\n
The reformists, who occupied center stage during the fall of
\nSoeharto \"are still there, screaming, but they have been
\nmarginalized,\" he said, adding that they could still wrestle back
\nthe initiative.<\/p>\n
Liddle noted that the unprecedented freedom following
\nSoeharto's downfall has allowed the return of 1950s sectarian
\npolitics.<\/p>\n
The trend is obvious from the growth of new parties bearing
\nsectarian labels that revive long buried political rivalries
\nalong religious or racial lines, he said.<\/p>\n
Falling into this category are parties like Abdurrahman
\nWahid's People's Awakening Party (PKB) which groups
\ntraditionalist Moslems, and Yusril Ihza Mahendra's Moon and Star
\nParty (PBB) which is supported by Islamic propagators, he said.<\/p>\n
Some of the major new parties resembled organizations that
\ndominated the political scene in the 1950s, he noted.<\/p>\n
PBB captures the spirit of the 1950s Masjumi; the People's
\nAwakening Party is underpinned by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU); and the
\nIndonesian Democratic Party (PDI) under Megawati Soekarnoputri
\nrepresents the interests of the abangan (nominally Moslem
\nJavanese) in addition to non-Moslems.<\/p>\n
These three groups, he said, were now battling for influence.<\/p>\n
He likened Amien Rais' People's Mandate Party (PAN) to the old
\nIndonesian Socialist Party (PSI), which had the support of
\nJakarta intellectuals. \"They will be engaged in the political
\neducation of the masses, but the masses won't listen and will
\nvote for the Moon and Star Party,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Liddle said that from the many new parties, five in particular
\nwere \"worth watching\" in next year's election -- the PKB, PDI,
\nMoon and Star Party, Golkar and PAN.<\/p>\n
\"Any one of them could get 20 percent of the votes... I'm
\nmost confident that PKB will do very well. I'm less confident
\nabout PAN and PBB,\" he said. (pan)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/government-wants-to-keep-state-powerful-analyst-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}