Disillusion rises of democracy stalls, says Demos study

Disillusion rises of democracy stalls, says Demos study

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The development of Indonesian democracy after more than six years
of transformation from an authoritarian regime has failed to
usher in significant change in the country's political landscape,
with corruption and power abuse still dominant, a study has
found.

A preliminary report of a study by human rights watchdog Demos
made available to The Jakarta Post recently found that after six
years since the reform movement began, democratic institutions
were weak and political corruption was on the rise, resulting in
a "deficit of democracy".

The survey revealed that 90 percent of respondents were of the
opinion that government officials were susceptible to corruption
and abuse of power. "The same proportion of respondents also
believed that the government could not free itself from
interference from powerful interest groups," the survey said.

Ninety-one percent of respondents had the view that political
parties, as the primary institution in a democratic political
system, were involved in bribery and vote-buying and were also
susceptible to influences exerted by powerful groups.

Contrary to a widely held assumption that the government would
become more accountable to the public under a democratic
political system, the survey found that 87 percent of respondents
were of the opinion that the bureaucracy had poor accountability.

Demos interviewed 800 respondents, consisting of non-
governmental organizations (NGO) activists, members of political
parties and other politically conscious community figures across
the country's 32 provinces as part of an ongoing project to
measure the extent of democratic development.

The survey was supported by the Norwegian Embassy in
Indonesia, the Swedish Agency for Development Cooperation (SIDA)
and the Ford Foundation. A final report on the survey is expected
to be issued in November this year.

Aside from the stifling of people's participation in the
country's political system, corruption and abuse of power were
the main characteristics of the autocratic regime of former
president Soeharto before it was toppled by a popular movement in
1999.

Despite the bleak picture, Demos found that a large number of
the respondents felt that their basic rights had been respected.

"Eighty percent of respondents believed that they could
exercise the rights of free speech and association," the survey
said.

Demos executive director Asmara Nababan said that although a
new set of freedoms prevailed, justice and legal certainty,
accountable governance and democratic representation were still
poor.

"Most human rights instruments and institutions designed to
support democracy have been dominated by the elite groups," he
said, adding that prodemocracy activists were not yet capable of
using the hard-won basic rights and democratic institutions to
bring about more political changes.

In its recommendation, Demos said that the prodemocracy
movement must press ahead with its agenda of improving the
existing institutions that already worked well and demanding more
basic rights to be honored.

"If democracy fails to generate immediate results, it doesn't
mean it is not suitable for us," it said.