Will new govt heed Anderson's plea?<\/p>\n
By Lance Castles<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): After a quarter century of malicious
\nexclusion from what he wanted to be his second country, the
\nbelated return of prominent American Indonesianist Ben Anderson
\nappears in the media as a triumphal progress.<\/p>\n
Of course, many academic readers long knew what he said and
\nwhat he stood for: thought control never really applied under the
\nNew Order. But now he is becoming known to a wider public and, in
\nsome sense, justice is belatedly being done.<\/p>\n
Indeed, the tables are being turned in both directions on many
\npeople who richly deserve it. As an English proverb has it, \"the
\nmills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly
\nsmall\".<\/p>\n
But I am going to use this space to comment that even Anderson
\nis inclined in unguarded moments to express dubious ideological
\nsentiments, and to endorse the pervasive pessimistic mood of the
\ntimes. It is the tendency to look a gift horse in the mouth and
\nnot dare to recognize how extraordinarily full of rational hope
\nfor the future the present really is. Really!<\/p>\n
Anderson correctly remarks that the Indonesians at present
\nhave \"pins and needles\", in the sense that they are unreasonably
\nand totally critical of the government and the system.<\/p>\n
It is difficult to put one's finger on anything that Habibie
\nhas actually done wrong. And there are many things he has done
\nright, as Anderson points out, but he gets no credit for this
\nwhatever from politicians, pundits and the media, who all
\nunanimously and continuously assault (verbally) the President,
\nGolkar, the Army and many officials unfairly and ad hominem.<\/p>\n
Typical is Yogyakarta-based daily Bernas in its March 8 report
\non Golkar's massive relaunching as a party at Senayan. \"Golkar
\ndeclaration attended by paid masses\" screams the headline, with
\nthe subscript explaining that each shout of \"Long Live Golkar\"
\nwas greeted ominously by a loud peal of thunder!<\/p>\n
But is it true to say, as Anderson does, that whoever is
\npresident -- Gus Dur, Megawati or Amien Rais -- would suffer from
\nthe same stinking national mood? I think this is wrong.<\/p>\n
On the contrary, the new team, and it is virtually as certain
\nas anything is in human affairs that it will be Mega-Amien, will
\nbe elected by 85 percent or more of the People's Consultative
\nAssembly (MPR). In other words, it will have been voted for
\nindirectly by over four-fifths of the Indonesian people.<\/p>\n
This will impose moral and psychological demands on the people
\nnot to criticize their own choices. This is one of the practical
\nadvantages of democracy. The new government will have a
\nlegitimacy such as no previous government has had since the
\n1950s, simply because it has submitted to the democratic process
\nwithout reserve, and won.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, if it is Amien, as opposed to Mega, who calls the
\nshots, and I believe the polls already prove this, it will be
\nlegitimacy of a particularly historic kind.<\/p>\n
It will restore the symbolically satisfying Dwitunggal as it
\nwas before Hatta resigned in 1956 and the regional Revolutionary
\nGovernment of the Republic of Indonesia (PRRI) rebellion was
\nsuppressed.<\/p>\n
Two further factors will add to the legitimacy of the new team
\nand give it one of the longest honeymoons in history. Indonesia
\nis now objectively in the nadir of an economic contraction,
\nthough prices have been reasonably stable for months now and the
\nconsumption of ordinary people has not contracted much.<\/p>\n
However, by the time the new team is inaugurated, the
\neconomic upswing will have begun, reinforced by the net inflow
\nof capital induced by the new legitimacy, the legendary money
\n\"pared\" in Singapore. There will be a virtuous circle of
\nrecovery and legitimacy, the reverse of the vicious circles
\nIndonesia experienced in the early 1960s and in 1997 through
\n1998.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, if Amien is calling the shots, the new autonomy
\nlaw, even if not exactly federal, will be seen to be working.
\nLocally elected governments will be seen to be taking
\nresponsibility for decisions, instead of being correctly
\nperceived as in the grip of a deadening bureaucracy in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
This may aggravate some internal regional tensions, but
\nultimately it is a plus in establishing a responsible, healthy
\ndemocracy in Indonesia. Ben Anderson's eloquent plea to heed the
\ndemands of the regions will have been heard.<\/p>\n
The author is a visiting lecturer of political sciences at
\nGadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta. He has written a number of
\nbooks on Indonesia, including Indonesia, Political Thinking 1945-
\n1965.<\/p>",
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