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.