Will RI's infant democracy survive to full maturity?<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON: If the astonishing advances that democracy
\nachieved in the past decade are to continue a few countries are
\nkey. Nigeria and South Africa on their continent, Colombia in
\nSouth America, Ukraine and Poland in Eastern Europe -- these are
\nlarge countries whose success will encourage democrats in
\nneighboring lands and whose failure could prove alarmingly
\ncontagious. In Southeast Asia, the testing ground is Indonesia,
\nthe world's fourth most populous nation.<\/p>\n
Indonesia faces all the familiar questions of democratic
\ntransition: whether civilians can tame a politically active
\nmilitary, how to hold the old regime accountable for human rights
\nabuses, balancing economic and political reform -- and whether it
\ncan hold together at all as a democracy.<\/p>\n
Indonesia calls itself a republic, but the archipelago is also
\na kind of empire, a vast collection of 17,000 islands whose far-
\nflung population of 216 million encompasses several religious and
\nethnic groups. For more than 30 years, the dictator Soeharto and
\nhis military held this improbable nation together by dishing out
\neconomic benefits to loyalists and meting out repression to
\nenemies. In 1998 the Indonesian economy collapsed, and Soeharto
\nwas swept from power amid massive street protests. Now his first
\nelected successor President Abdurrahman Wahid is trying to build
\ncohesion through peaceful, democratic means, avoiding the sort of
\nbloodshed that attended East Timor's separation last year.<\/p>\n
The cease-fire signed last week between his government and
\nseparatist guerrillas in the region of Aceh, where 300 people
\nhave been killed in the past four months, suggests that democracy
\nmight just have a chance.<\/p>\n
The Free Aceh Movement has been waging war for independence
\noff and on for a quarter of a century. The rebels, who are
\nsupported and trained by Libya, have committed their share of
\natrocities against civilians, but the counterinsurgency response
\nby the Indonesia military, which conceives of itself as the
\nultimate guarantor of territorial integrity, has been bloodier.
\nThe Indonesian forces' brutality has compounded Aceh's long-
\nstanding grievance over the way its abundant natural resources
\nare exploited for the benefit of other islands. Thus, even though
\nthe rebels are not popular, the people of Aceh are increasingly
\nalienated from the Jakarta government, and many hope that Aceh
\ncan vote for independence in a referendum as East Timor did last
\nyear.<\/p>\n
Yet they might scale for less if the central authorities
\nconvincingly offer them a fairer share of the country's wealth,
\nbetter conduct by the armed forces and a measure of justice with
\nregard to past human rights violations by the government.<\/p>\n
Wahid appears to understand this. The cease-fire agreement, to
\nbe signed on May 15 in Geneva, would require both the rebels and
\nthe army to stop offensive operations, it is still not clear
\nwhether the government has promised to withdraw large numbers of
\nits forces. In the peaceful interval that would follow, the two
\nsides could discuss the terms of a final settlement.<\/p>\n
Uncompromising elements in either the Free Aceh Movement or
\nthe Indonesian military may yet use violence to sabotage this
\npeace process. But Jakarta's initiative is the first ray of hope
\nthe troubled territory has seen in a long time and an
\nencouragement for those who hope to see democracy establish
\nitself in this important nation.<\/p>\n
-- The Washington Post<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/will-ris-infant-democracy-survive-to-full-maturity-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }