Common people

Common people

From Kompas

Kompas ran a report on its front page titled Voice of common people from July 12 to July 14, 2001 about how the common people are suffering because the state's leaders are not paying any attention to them. The report acknowledges that the sufferings of the common people have been exacerbated by the political crisis in the run-up to the special session of the People's Consultative Assembly.

It is also clear from the report that our politicians and intellectuals are aware of the plight of the common people. They, however, have only exploited the common people for their vested interest as they idolize power. The attitude of our politicians toward the matter in question seem to suggest that the phrase "common people" is a national concept.

The concept the our founding fathers had in mind was that of "sovereign people" (sovereignty in the hands of the people, as stipulated the 1945 Constitution). What about the word "people" itself? Are people categorized as "small", "medium", "big" and "very big"? Does our sovereignty depend on which category we fall into? Ask our leaders and their answer is surely, "None of my business".

In the House of Representatives' first memorandum of censure against the President, the "leaders" in the House used the phrase "common people" instead of "sovereign people". They have not adopted the concept of sovereign people enforcing popular sovereignty.

Like it or not, this has been the reality for the past 56 years since our independence. It also does not seem that we have any wish to stop idolizing power. How much longer must we bear with this culture of "colonized people"?

ROCH BASOEKI MANGOENPOEROJO

Jakarta