Democracy without education: Quo vadis?

Nirwan Idrus, Executive Director, Indonesian Institute for Management Development (IPMI), Jakarta

The euphoria about democracy in Indonesia lasted a few years. Reality took over and democracy is no more. One begins to hear the longing for the New Order of the Soeharto regime. Some say that the cleanliness of the major roads around Jakarta was a sense of pride. Footpath vendors were not to be found alongside these major roads.

But now? There is no law and order, they claim. Corruption is uncontrollable. There were rampant corruptions in Soeharto's time, but they hasten to add, not as ludicrous, giddy and shameless as they are today, as if to say that corruption was more orderly, more organized, more restrained and more structured.

Now everyone seems to be in a hurry, fearing perhaps that Armageddon will stop them from capitalizing on the plight of the poor and accumulating the illegal wealth that everyone else is vying for. The clearest picture of this is on Jakarta roads. The lesson foreigners quickly learn about driving in Jakarta particularly and in Indonesia generally, is that nobody waits for anybody else and that this egoistic actions are directly opposite to what they read about Indonesians before they set foot in this country.

While many are still on cloud nine about democratization, others are wading in the bitter wake of its failures. The reality it would seem is that Indonesia is a long way from democracy, even though the rhetoric and abuse of the word democracy continue.

While senior officers in government and in private institutions in democratic countries would voluntarily step out of their positions if investigated for criminal offenses, in Indonesia even those who are already convicted refused to relinquish their positions.

Such is democracy in Indonesia. Moves are reportedly afoot to write in rules and regulations into various acts so that such shameful situations will not recur. Many people are skeptical that this will amount to anything.

The re-election of Sutiyoso to the governorship of Jakarta is yet another example of questionable democracy. Allegations of money politics were ripe about this election. Apparently no proof was found by authorities about these allegations and the election is therefore unassailable. Never mind about the people demonstrating for days outside the City Council, or a lot of other criticisms thrown at the election.

Some people will claim that the rallies and criticisms in Jakarta over whatever issues, are the very evidence of democracy at work, and that this sort of thing was absent during the Orde Baru. Proponents of democracy will say that Indonesia has gone a long way towards democracy in the last four or so years.

Surprise, surprise, and then one is told that the rallies themselves were staged. The demonstrators were paid by figures known and unknown. One gets more confused when one is told that those who alleged money politics may even be recipients of unclear funds. The convolution continues.

Villagers, even those in the middle of paddy fields, are watching all the above live on their TV sets. They listen to the oration by various people claiming to be students and they watched experts explaining the essence of democracy, politics, economics and many other things.

Although half of what they heard were gobbledygook, their emotion is fired up. They would themselves engage in discussions about democracy, impressed by what the TV experts had said. Some continue to wonder why so-and-so was called a doctor when his claimed area of expertise is economics and not medicine. Yet still others wonder what they are going to give their families to eat when dawn breaks the next day.

Aspects of democracy can also be seen in the central government's effort to decentralize through the laws on regional autonomy. However discussions are unending about the extent that those in the know claim that regional autonomy has not worked. These include a ministerial level government official who was tasked to get regional autonomy implemented.

The process for university autonomy awarded to the four larger state universities in the country have been undertaken, but the spirit was missing. Although the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) is still to elect its new rector, all the four universities will clearly have elected insiders persons as their new rectors.

When one knows that an outsider finds it heavy going in changing the entrenched paradigm of an institution, what chance is there for an insider to even scratch the surface of change? Of course those institutions will claim that democracy has been put in place.

But have the people exercised their democratic rights? Were they able to put their thoughts into the ring and be fairly considered? Were they able to do so without fear of repercussions? Did they put their thoughts without having been paid, whether in money or kind, by those who have vested interest but were afraid to be counted?

Democracy is about openly exercising one's rights in arguing one's point, asserting the point to others and accepting one's defeat if the point did not finally win. Logics play an extremely important point here. It is a discipline that one gets by learning about it and practicing it.

How do we implement democracy when the power of logics in most Indonesians is simply not there -- they have not got the instructions about logics, they have not been exposed to logical discussion and arguments and that they have been culturally conditioned not to be inquisitive and argumentative.

They were simply not taught to be so in schools or that they were not educated to the level that would ordinarily begin analytical and logical training. World Bank figures showed that 70 percent of the Indonesian workforce only has primary school education. Various regional and international surveys have also showed that the level of education in Indonesia leaves a lot to be desired.

Even our physics teachers have problems passing the tests at the higher secondary school level, while physics is one of the foundation for modern technology and society. Our locally graduated engineers are below par compared to those from neighboring Southeast Asian countries.

Their curricula are considered unnecessarily irrelevant and the learning method anachronistic. While primary school pupils in New Zealand or Australia are let loose on a individual self- directed learning process about particular topics on which they were to write an essay on, Indonesian university students are still being hand-held by their lecturers and are still learning almost by rote.

Masters and PhD supervisors in overseas universities are reportedly refusing to supervise research students from Indonesia, because they are so dependent on their supervisors, while research degrees are meant to be training for independent research.

Exacerbated by the big number of school-age children not at school for one reason or another, plus the questionable quality of the teaching and learning, facilities and teachers at schools and universities around the country, little if any foundation for logics and thus democracy is laid. So can we claim that we are a democracy or even, that we are going through the process?

Various developments over the last four years, from the destruction of company properties by people claiming to be their rightful owners and newly freed from claimed oppression, to the incessant and senseless killings based on ethnicity and religious differences, spell misunderstanding and ignorance about democracy. Good education is pivotal in changing all these and good education is the most basic requirement for a democratic society. Democracy without education has nowhere to go.