Rulers must heed people: Analysts<\/p>\n
A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
After a month of massive demonstrations by teachers and students,
\nthe central government has endorsed the decision of the Kampar
\nLegislative Council to dismiss controversial Regent Jefri Noer.<\/p>\n
The decision was welcomed by thousands of teachers, students
\nand civil servants in the regency, who had united to oust Jefri.
\nAfter hearing the decision, which was announced by Minister of
\nHome Affairs Hari Sabarno last Thursday, they paraded through the
\ncity of Bangkinang, the capital of Kampar regency, some 60
\nkilometers west of Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province.<\/p>\n
Following the celebration of Jefri's dismissal, the situation
\nin Kampar began to return to normal. Teachers and students said
\nthey would go back to class, while civil servants were ready to
\nreturn to their jobs.<\/p>\n
But the protests in Kampar, which some people have described
\nas a \"people's power\" movement, leave us with two questions: What
\ncan we learn from this? And where do we go from here?<\/p>\n
Political analyst Mochtar Pabottinggi said the protests \"show
\nthat democracy works in Kampar. In democracy, people are
\nsovereign. Having held a series of protests that involved large
\nnumbers of people, Kampar residents played their role as an
\neffective pressure group, which is legitimate in a democracy,\" he
\ntold The Jakarta Post on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Mochtar said there must have been something wrong with the
\nregent to get teachers to protest repeatedly.<\/p>\n
\"The teachers, students and civil servants apparently were
\ndeeply disappointed with the regent, so they took to the streets
\nto protest against him,\" said Mochtar, a researcher at the
\nIndonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).<\/p>\n
Mochtar said he believed the demonstrations represented the
\ntrue wishes of the people of Kampar and were not engineered.
\nKampar is home to 400,000 residents, and the protesters attracted
\ntens of thousands of people.<\/p>\n
Syamsuddin Harris, Mochtar's colleague at LIPI, said the
\ncountry's leaders should learn from Kampar.<\/p>\n
\"I read reports in the media that the regent was authoritarian
\nand arrogant. This could be a precedent to teach other leaders to
\nbe more careful in the future,\" he told the Post separately.<\/p>\n
Regent Jefri could not be contacted on Saturday for comment.<\/p>\n
The trouble in Kampar began last month when Jefri threw a
\nschool principal out of a meeting after the principal questioned
\nhim about the budget allocation for education.<\/p>\n
The incident outraged teachers and students in the regency,
\nwho united in a major protest several days later. Thousands of
\nteachers and students joined demonstrations over the course of 12
\ndays, paralyzing education in the regency. The protests forced
\nthe Kampar Legislative Council to hold a plenary meeting that
\nresulted in the decision to dismiss Jefri.<\/p>\n
The regent had been the target of public anger before this
\nincident, including over allegations he used a fake high school
\ndiploma when he ran for regent three years ago and his habit of
\nrepeatedly replacing senior civil servants.<\/p>\n
Syamsuddin said all elected officials in the country should
\nlearn a lesson from the events in Kampar.<\/p>\n
\"This people's power movement would not have happened if the
\nlegislative council understood the wishes of the people. The
\nmassive protests happened because the council did not function
\nproperly,\" he said.<\/p>",
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