Democracy has no place in Indonesia: Presidential advisor
Democracy has no place in Indonesia: Presidential advisor
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
A political advisor to President Megawati Soekarnoputri says
Indonesia lacks the proper climate to become a democratic country
due to the divides between its political, ethnic and religious
groups.
One factor, said Cornelis Lay of Gadjah Mada University in
Yogyakarta citing a Dutch survey, is that this fragmented
structure of society prohibits people of various backgrounds from
interacting freely.
"In such a condition, only two kinds of authorities have the
capability of uniting differences, the first is colonial power --
especially because of its very strong manipulating power -- and
the repressive authority marked by the kings," Cornelis said
during a seminar titled Religious and Ethnic Conflicts in
Indonesia: Analysis and Resolution at the Duta Wacana Guest House
in Kaliurang, Yogyakarta recently.
"In some regions in Indonesia," he continued, alluding to his
own research, "the whole economic building of many regions is
based on ethnic category."
Butchery businesses in particular regions, he said, have
always been in the hands of certain ethnic groups -- to the near
complete exclusion of outsiders. "The same pattern applies to
other commodities," he added.
According to Cornelis, such ethnic-based economic phenomena
has strong resonance in many parts of Indonesia.
Such conditions, Cornelis said, would not cause problems if
ethnic groups stopped interfering each other's businesses.
"What happened in Kupang in 1999 was triggered by a change in
the economic arrangement pattern between indigenous and non-
indigenous groups," said Cornelis, referring to religious
conflict that hit East Nusa Tenggara province in 1999.
"Non-indigenous people, the Makasar and Buginese traders who
were previously only allowed to be peddlers," he added, "started
to sell other commodities such as coconuts."
"You can find pluralistic society in almost every civilization
in the world, but the fragmented pluralistic society like the one
in Indonesia is rarely found," Cornelis said.
Another factor that Cornelis considered to have made it
difficult for people of different religious and ethnic groups to
co-exist is that interreligion and ethnic relationships are
developed based on stereotypes.
"For example, Muslims always see Christians as trying to
convert Muslims into Christianity by offering staple food and
clothes -- while Christians always see Muslims as fundamentalist,
radical, and intolerant," he said.
Minorities and majorities are another factor which makes it
difficult for people of different religions and ethnicities to
build good interactions or avoid conflicts.
"The politics of numbers, as I call it, have become a very
critical point in interreligious and ethnic relationships in
Indonesia," he said, referring to the fact that population size
had always been used as a base to make interpretations or claims
over particular rights.
Muslims, as a majority, for instance, often feel that they
have more rights than minorities; minority groups, on the other
hand, use their diminished status as rationale to seek privileges
in social, political, or economic life.
"Numbers, therefore, have a very big implication in the
political building of the country," he said.