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