Reform movement going nowhere after 5 years<\/p>\n
Muninggar Sri Saraswati
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
The sluggish reform process, which was expected to deliver
\ndemocracy to the country after the end of former president
\nSoeharto's 32-year authoritarian regime, has also given
\nopportunities for counterreform forces to destroy it, a scholar
\nsaid on Monday.<\/p>\n
\"World history teaches us that reform always creates
\ncounterreform. That's why we have to remain vigilant to prevent
\nthe reform movement that started in 1998 from being intercepted
\nby counterreform forces,\" said Ignas Kleden, a noted sociologist
\nwith the Center for East Indonesia Affairs (CEIA).<\/p>\n
He presented his paper during a discussion about the
\ndevelopment of the 1998 Indonesian reform held by Tempo weekly
\nand the Freedom Institute on Monday. Also presenting their papers
\nduring the talk were noted Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid,
\neconomist M. Chatib Basri and legal observer Nono Anwar Makarim.<\/p>\n
The New Order regime had ruled the country for 32 years from
\n1966. Led by former president Soeharto, a former military
\nofficial, the authoritarian government imposed a militaristic
\napproach and closed the door on public participation in all
\nelements of social structure.<\/p>\n
Five years after the reform movement started, Ignas said,
\nIndonesian politics still focus on state interests rather than on
\nsociety's.<\/p>\n
He said the recent case against the separatist Free Aceh
\nMovement (GAM) exemplifies this fact as it is considered more
\ndangerous than the sectarian conflict in Maluku, which claimed
\nmore than 6,000 lives over three years.<\/p>\n
He said that the issue of national stability, which was
\npopular propagation during the New Order regime, has been
\nreplaced with the issue of national territorial integrity.<\/p>\n
\"Political powers tend to avert people's dependency on the
\nstate by manipulating civil society's powers, which succeeded in
\nforcing then president Soeharto to step down,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Ignas said that the condition was triggered by, among other
\nthings, the tendency of many political parties here to rely on
\nthe state to finance them.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Ignas said, the orientation of political
\nparties before and after the reform era, which is to struggle for
\npower rather than to focus on the use of power, was still
\nunchanged.<\/p>\n
Nurcholis concurred and said that the sluggish development of
\nthe reform process was due to a lack of public participation.<\/p>\n
The condition had slowed the development of the reform
\nprocess. Worse, the reform of the country's judicial system,
\nwhich was supposedly leading the reform program, had yet to show
\nany results.<\/p>\n
Nono criticized all post-Soeharto administrations for their
\nmisleading perception of law reforms, in which judicial reform
\nwould need the reformation of the country's legislations.<\/p>\n
The government and the House of Representatives, especially
\nduring former president B.J. Habibie's tenure, have passed
\nnumerous laws and issued many regulations, but there is no legal
\ncertainty while corruption remains rampant.<\/p>\n
\"The country's judicial system has been badly tarnished to the
\npoint that it is impossible to fix it without enacting
\nlegislations,\" Nono said.<\/p>\n
\"(People) always look to their leaders to ask them what to do.
\nThis condition has lead to the (reform) failure,\" he told the
\nparticipants, commenting that Indonesians currently face \"a very
\ndifficult situation\".<\/p>\n
Nucholish, who is seeking presidential candidacy for the 2004
\nelection, said that Indonesia sorely needs leaders who are
\nstrongly committed to the state.<\/p>\n
\"A leader must have the public's trust and always provide room
\nfor grassroots participation in national life,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Nono, meanwhile, believed that people could no longer reform
\nthe country by relying on the government and the House. He asked
\nthe public to participate more in the decision-making process in
\nthe country.<\/p>\n
\"Reform is not a simple thing. People have to focus on the
\nprocess, instead of the target. As a process will produce many
\npossibilities, they should be decided together by the people.
\nThat is the meaning of democracy,\" Ignas said.<\/p>\n
Soeharto stepped down in 1998 following widespread student
\ndemonstrations across the country against his government. People
\npinned their hopes on the reform process to lead the country to
\nbecome a democratic one.<\/p>\n
However, the sluggish development of the reform process has
\nforced some people to say that life under the New Order regime
\nwas better than during the reform period, despite the fact that
\nthey had lived under oppression.<\/p>",
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