Can we stop anarchy and still promote openness?

Can we stop anarchy and still promote openness?

By Mochtar Buchori

JAKARTA (JP): Political speeches by our national leaders
during the last three or four months have carried a very clear
message: Openness should not be carried too far and excessive
openness will inevitably lead to chaos and anarchy.

No Indonesian in their right mind wants chaos and anarchy in
our society. The lessons that can be drawn from Haiti, Rwanda,
Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and other countries are clear enough:
chaos and anarchy only bring misery to the people.

On the other hand, no Indonesian who truly believes in
Pancasila can tolerate policies that suppress the growth of
openness in our society. Without openness it is next to
impossible to implement and uphold humanitarianism, the people's
sovereignty and social justice; three of the five principles of
Pancasila.

It is imperative that we understand clearly the nature of
openness and the origin of chaos and anarchy. As far as I can
understand it, openness means willingness to make matters of
public concern open for public inspection. Within our society the
principle of openness does not require popular personalities to
expose their private lives to the public. Openness in our society
means simply that holders of public office must oppose every
attempt to keep the public ignorant concerning matters of vital
concern.

Chaos and anarchy, on the other hand, are consequences of
failure to restrain ourselves and failure to respect rules
regarding public order. They have nothing to do with access to
information regarding matters of public interest. A community or
society becomes chaotic and vulnerable to anarchy if and when the
majority of its members no longer trust each other and abandon
the collective values that underlie orderly co-existence.

It is exactly the combination of these two events that
ultimately caused chaos and anarchy in Haiti and Rwanda. There is
in my understanding no direct causal relationship between
openness on the one hand and chaos and anarchy on the other.

The question we have to answer is how we should work toward
preventing chaos and anarchy in the future without abandoning
what we have achieved so far in promoting openness in our
society.

We have to admit in this connection that certain conditions in
our society today could lead toward chaos and anarchy in the
future. Social tensions that have arisen in our society as a
consequence of events, which are perceived as offending the
public sense of justice and decency, like embezzlement of funds
at state banks, the continuously soaring price of cement and the
presence of groups which seem to be beyond the reach of law, for
instance, could if unchecked, lead toward real chaos and anarchy.

In real life, chaos and anarchy can be caused by various
kinds of events and conditions. They can be averted only if we
correctly identify their true sources. It is therefore more
promising, I think, for simultaneously promoting social order and
democracy in our society if we learn to identify and to manage
the specific events which at any one time cause public discord
and mutual distrust among us.

It is a difficult and painful process, but it is the only way
through which we can reach democracy without chaos and stability
without deceptions. We have to realize in this regard that it is
only this kind of stability which is capable of sustaining
creativity, an indispensable ingredient for our national
development. It is a stability which cannot be achieved without a
sufficient amount of democracy in these modern times.

The decisions we are going to have to make at this juncture
with regard to these two problems, openness and stability, will
have far-reaching consequences. Whether or not we will be able to
enhance our dignity as a nation in the future will depend, to a
fairly large extent, on our actual decision in this regard.

The writer is rector of Muhammadiyah University, Jakarta.