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)