Building change from local urban communities

Marco Kusumawijaya, Urban Development Consultant, Jakarta, marcokw@centrin.net.id

All types of noisy demonstration on the streets of Jakarta must stop, because those to whom they are addressed are meditating, practicing a form of anti-Buddhism: Hear no goodness, see no goodness and speak no goodness. They do not even smell the goodness of the sweat and blood of demonstrators. Meanwhile, at the other extreme, members of the middle class simply send a 125- character cell phone message (SMS) saying, "I saw you on TV, good show, man! We support you, but regrets, I could not join today -- there will be other times, right?!"

On Sept. 29, high in a mountainous real estate-cum-resort south of Jakarta, 150 upper-middle-class families took their grievance to the streets -- in their cars! They were protesting the rise in charges for garbage collection, while using their luxurious cars to pollute the air for all of us to inhale. (Pathetically, they did not know that cars running slowly in first or second gear emit more CO2 than in higher gear.)

Protests in the form of human chains, or loud voices from a sound-system above a truck amidst a few thousand yelling people may have to stop. Listen to the media: They want something more dramatic and sensational.

They want the demonstrators to press harder. They want them to crash down the fence, break windows and doors, lock up city hall and legislative buildings with the corruptors inside, or perhaps jam the toll road. And, of course, not one or two thousand people, but a million, please!

These will really look good and sound good, and keep the media busy and excited for a couple of days, with perhaps a couple of "breaking news" items plus follow-up talk shows.

That is okay if the demonstrators want immediately to be criminalized. It is all the same, whether they shed their blood first on the streets or at police stations.

And middle-class people will say, "Well, all this wouldn't have been necessary had the government been more responsive, and we wouldn't have had to suffer this much in the traffic jams, if only told in advance. We actually sympathize with the cause, you know, but the methods aren't right."

"We actually sympathize" is indeed a comfort. But how does one reach the "right method" if the target will not listen?

Activist and philosopher Karlina Leksono, at the Soedjatmoko Memorial Lecture last Sept. 30, mentioned two key items as the basis for engagement: a sense of care and justice. It is not enough to express solidarity with ad-hoc contributions. A sense of justice should motivate people to go to the roots of problems, of the sufferings of others, and therefore a sense of responsibility to effect change, which is only possible when there is deeper engagement. Engagement is a moral imperative, and commitment is a prerequisite to bringing about sustainable change.

So should the comrades in demonstrations go underground instead? I'm not really that pessimistic. We have only just started in local politics. A long journey starts with one little step. Whether what we are doing now will bring effective change is to be seen much later, but whatever more is required to bring that about must be built upon foundations being laid down now.

When the Dutch colonial government started the kampong improvement programs in Jakarta in 1925, it was not only driven by ethical politics back home -- but also by local politics in the city. Abdul Moeis -- a novelist-turned-politician -- talked to a crowd in 1913 outside the People's Council.

He criticized the paltry compensation for land acquired for the development of Menteng in Central Jakarta and the generally bad state of native kampongs, which were neglected by the authorities. His colleague, M.H. Thamrin, did the same, and the kampong improvement programs in the New Order were named after him.

Healthy local politics should truly be built upon diverse interests and communities outside the formal power structure. There is need for more non-government, non-partisan, and not-for- profit organizations within civil society. They need to build a platform from within and with civil society. In other words, there should be work on the demand side.

This platform should consist of at least four basic components: A vision of the preferred future, with an outline program to achieve it; a set of instruments (indicators and ways) to measure achievement; a strategic framework for citizen political action; and a network of information and relationships that cuts cross communities and interests.

Local political work should be more interesting than just demonstrating: It is about measurable and tangible things, directly related to fulfillment of daily needs. At the local level, the relationship between a policy and its successful implementation in the field is more certain and can be calculated clearly.

Many factors can be rationally identified and defined. And there is no need for any mythical leader either. Perhaps it is exactly all these elements that make it difficult for a politician to be truly worthy!

The roots of society are in the urban and rural communities. So, many innovations are now groomed more in local communities and civil society organizations.

It is precisely for its closeness to reality and the people that urban movements that start from localities are a critical source of struggle, not only against abstract state domination, but also against the Leviathan nature of capitalism, which knows no borders and globalization.