1995 a major set-back for democracy: Forum

1995 a major set-back for democracy: Forum

JAKARTA (JP): This year has been a major set-back in
Indonesia's quest for democracy, the Forum for Democracy said
yesterday.

"Anyone with a little knowledge of the political situation
will clearly see that we have seen an extraordinary setback in
our goal of a building a modern constitutional state," the Forum,
lead by outspoken Moslem scholar Abdurrahman Wahid, said in
reviewing 1995.

In a meeting with journalists at Taman Ismail Marzuki Arts
Center in Jakarta, Abdurrahman singled out the country's
intellectuals who indulged in political power play, likening the
situation to pre-independence Indonesia.

Such "intellectual hoodlums", he said, are fanning conflicts
not unsimilar to the "divide and conquer politics" used by the
rulers during the Dutch colonial days.

The Forum for Democracy is a loose association of some 45
intellectuals who got together in 1991 to counter what they saw
at the time as a trend towards sectarian politics of the old
days. Its founding came only a few months after the much heralded
establishment of the Association of Indonesian Moslem
Intellectuals (ICMI). Abdurrahman, who also chairs the 30-million
strong Nahdlatul Ulama, has been an ardent critic of ICMI.

"These days we deeply regret that a similar situation has
developed," said the statement read by Forum member Bondan
Gunawan. "There are mutual suspicion. Racial tension is
developing and narrow-visioned power politics have become the
focus of many parties, including intellectuals."

"We remember how the colonial power hired intellectuals and
native elites to play in the political arena and weaken
independence movements," it added.

The Forum said Indonesia's heterogeneous society has all the
potential to build a democratic political culture.

This however requires tolerance among the various groups in
society strong enough to override self interest, the Forum said.

"Primordial" or sectarian politics which are being fanned by
certain groups now can only encourage exclusive loyalties and
therefore enhance the likelihood of conflict, it added.

Abdurrahman said that in view of the trend towards sectarian
politics, official jargon calling for national unity smacked of
hypocrisy.

"The call for unity is inconsistent with primordial politics,"
he said, adding that both the jargons for national unity and the
primordial politics have contributed to the "communication jam"
in which people cannot think clearly.

"We all have the right to primordial orientations; but this
must never gain a formal place," Abdurrahman said.

He added he has always been sympathetic of ICMI, "but I always
aim to correct what is necessary."

Present at the media briefing yesterday were political
observer Marsilam Simandjuntak and philosopher Franz Magnis
Suseno, both members of the forum.

Abdurrahman also lashed out at the government's attempt to
suppress debates about national leadership succession, which he
said is a major political agenda which the nation has to face
sooner or later.

"Even if we assume that President Soeharto will be re-elected
in 1998, we still have to prepare for 2003," he said.

The ruling political group Golkar has ruled out any debate on
leadership succession at the present time, calling it "unethical"
to discuss the issue when the incumbent President Soeharto is
still serving his term.

Even talking about the mechanism to change the leadership has
been made impossible, Abdurrahman said.

"The preparation for a healthy political culture, including
the mechanisms of leadership change, is a major undertaking which
we have to begin now," the Forum's statement said, adding that
constraints to thinking and expressing opinion will lead to
restlessness.

Public restlessness has been further fanned by "vulgar and
indecent political transactions ... the products of a closed,
limited and controlled political system," it said.

The system which has been maintained through five successive
elections, "is wrongly based on one leadership figure."

One-man leadership "has become a burden to a normal management
of state affairs," the Forum said. "This has further obstructed
efforts to realize the goal of social justice." (anr)