Democracy only comes after prosperity, says expert

Democracy only comes after prosperity, says expert

JAKARTA (JP): Democracy will work well only in a prosperous
nation, political expert Nazaruddin Syamsuddin said here
yesterday.

Nazaruddin, a professor at the Jakarta-based University of
Indonesia's School of Social and Political Sciences, told a
seminar held by the Moslem Students Association (HMI) that hungry
people tended to exert their democratic rights in careless ways
which in turn caused conflicts.

"Prosperity will allow people to remain levelheaded so that
democracy is encouraged. People who struggle for food cannot
exercise their political rights properly," he said.

Nazaruddin said certain developing countries in Asia were good
examples of this. "They applied political democracy only to
suffer endless internal conflicts," he said.

But Nazaruddin failed to explain what measures of prosperity
were needed before a government could let its people use their
democratic rights freely.

The two-day seminar was organized to mark the association's
golden anniversary which falls on Feb. 3.

Chief of the Armed Forces' socio-political affairs Lt. Gen.
Syarwan Hamid, who was scheduled to speak at the seminar, failed
to turn up. He sent his paper instead.

Syarwan said Indonesia's political culture was pregnant with
the "seeds of behavior vulnerable to conflict." Such a culture
derived from the colonial period which saw nothing but
oppression, he said.

"Our political culture emphasizes rights more than
obligations," Syarwan said.

Nazaruddin said Indonesia was in the process of building up a
democracy after recording impressive performances in its economic
development.

But he criticized the government for introducing political
openness early in the 1990s and then leaving its implementation
up to the public.

"Political openness exercised on an unprepared society will
bring about apathy," Nazaruddin said.

He said the government should have applied political openness
to organizations rather than to individuals. This approach, he
argued, would enable control of the exercise of democratic
rights.

Global era

Nazaruddin suggested the government prepare a political system
to give the nation the power to face the incoming global
competition.

"The government needs to improve efficiency and decrease its
intervention in the business sector through privatization," he
said.

At the same time the political system should empower
legislative and judicial bodies to keep private companies under
control, he said.

Syarwan said the future Indonesia should be founded in line
with the principles of civil society.

"Civil society is different from civilian society, in which
the country's elite political group comprises civilians only," he
said.

"The 1945 Constitution does not stress who rules, but who does
what and how," he added.

Therefore, the constitution does not distinguish civilian from
military, according to Syarwan. Instead, the two sides have to
accommodate each other in the spirit of cooperation.

Another speaker, economist Adi Sasono, said if stability was
maintained, Indonesia would emerge the world's fifth economic
superpower after China, the United States, Japan and India in
2020. (amd)