Autonomy-seekers should keep focused

I Wayan Ananta Wijaya, Contributor, Denpasar, Bali

The demand for special autonomy is by no means new, particularly for the island's intellectuals and scholars.

It is a recurring theme, a discourse that continues to attract fresh supporters, new ground or a new context every time the island enters a period of uncertainty.

The last time the debate made an appearance was during the early days of reform from 1997 through 1999. It was a period of economic upheaval and political uncertainty marked with much social unrest and violent interethnic clashes, which took place across the country.

The disorder provided fertile ground for those who wanted to question the ability of the monolithic, centralized government to hold the vast archipelago together.

In respond to that period of uncertainty, Balinese intellectuals reviewed the island's relationship with the central government and came out with four political designs to replace the existing province: an independent state, a federal state, a special region or a region with special autonomy status.

Toward the end of 1999, the Denpasar-based Institute for Development and Information Assessment (LPIP) Forum at Udayana University organized a two-month survey to gauge the perception of the middle class toward these four political designs.

The survey targeted a specific group of respondents: adult individuals (21 to 51 years of age) from a high educational background and on medium-to-high personal income.

The survey showed that special autonomy status was popular among Denpasar's middle class, with over 62 percents of the respondents opting for this alternative.

Interestingly, more than 14 percents of respondents thought that the existing provincial government structure was already correct and should not be replaced by any of the four alternatives.

Meanwhile, the idea of a special region attracted only around 10 percent support, while the federal state concept received a paltry 7 percent. The option of becoming an independent state turned out to be the least popular idea of all, garnering only 3.57 percent.

Glaring gap in perception

Early in 2000, LPIP organized another poll with a wider sample of respondents in terms of geographic and demographic coverage. It was an attempt to ascertain whether grassroots Balinese shared similar aspirations to those of their middle-class brethren.

The 321 people from nine regencies in Bali who responded were asked to list up to 10 issues they believed to be crucial and important to the future of the island.

Curiously, none mentioned the need to substitute the existing province with a special autonomy region in their wish lists.

Instead, they identified more tangible problems, ranging from population control, the empowerment of traditional institutions and unemployment to the wealth gap and illegal drugs, as issues that should immediately be addressed by the Balinese.

The results of these two surveys illustrated a glaring gap in perception between Denpasar's middle class and the remainder of the Balinese people, particularly on the importance of restructuring the island's relationship with Jakarta.

Another survey, conducted in April 2000 by the Institute for Social and Economic Information, Education and Research (LP3S), further confirmed the gap in perception. The survey, aimed at identifying important local issues, involved 500 respondents from all over the island.

A mere 1 percent of respondents identified special autonomy status as an important issue. The remainder identified economic improvements, construction of public facilities, security, job opportunities, law enforcement and community empowerment as the most pressing problems.

The ongoing political movement, launched by some of the island's top politicians and intellectuals to push the central government for special autonomy status for the island, should therefore pay careful attention to this gap in perception.

So far, politicians and intellectuals have not given the public a clear enough idea of the nature and content of the special autonomy they are trying to achieve for the island.

The ability of this pro-autonomy group to accommodate and integrate the previously mentioned issues -- believed by grassroots Balinese to be crucial -- into a special autonomy blueprint will determine the ultimate outcome.

Failure to do so will certainly alienate grassroots Balinese from this political pursuit, robbing the politicians and intellectuals of the public support they desperately need to convince Jakarta about the importance of the issue.

Lastly, it would likely turn the whole movement into a detached struggle of the elite, which would constitute a premature political defeat for the movement itself.