Economic crisis can erode govt's legitimacy: Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): The ongoing economic turmoil could erode the government's legitimacy as it can no longer compensate for the tight political restrictions with economic benefits, a political scholar believes.

The University of Indonesia's Arbi Sanit said Saturday that the government would lose its legitimacy as the economy, which has been long-regarded as the New Order's major success story, begins to stagnate.

The government "cannot compensate with welfare anymore for political restrictions applied on the people in the name of stability," the prominent political scientist said.

"The crisis, which began to evolve in the mid-1997, has only worsened the tense relations between the state and the people," Arbi told a discussion at the National Institute of Sciences.

In a nine-page paper made available for release Saturday, Arbi said the government's legitimacy had also deteriorated with the continued "illegitimate relationship" with the private sector through widely practiced collusion and corruption.

The private sector has been widely criticized for its huge external debts which many have said is one of the main contributing factors to the current economic turmoil. Analysts say it exceeds US$65 billion.

Arbi maintained that the crisis was in part due to the poor quality of the current cabinet compared to previous ones under President Soeharto.

"Coordination among members of the sixth development cabinet is very weak. Just look at the ability of some ministers, it is well below the New Order standard," he remarked without mentioning names.

Arbi then went on to criticize the bureaucracy.

"The bureaucracy is sinking in its own mounting problems and it has been so corrupt and irresponsive (to the people)," Arbi charged.

Unrest

Arbi predicted that this year would be marred by continued social unrest as the government failed to solve several of the country's basic problems.

He identified these as the widening of the social and economic disparity between the rich and the poor, the bureaucracy's ignorance and irresponsiveness, and the uncertainty of the legal system.

"Social unrest will probably occur this year as these basic problems have not been touched upon by the government," Arbi said.

Riwanto Tirtosudarmo of the National Institute of Sciences shared Arbi's opinion, saying that the rising unemployment due to the economic crisis would likely spark social unrest.

"As basic necessities cannot be obtained by the people anymore, then it would be normal if people carry out actions which may break the law," Riwanto said.

Riwanto lamented that workers were still considered by the government merely a commodity and therefore open to exploitation.

He also criticized the recent manpower law for failing to accommodate workers' rights.

"Laborers in Indonesia have been weakened politically as they are deemed a threat to national stability by the government," he said.

He expressed concern that as long as the government considered the labor force a threat, workers' morale would never improve.

"I doubt that workers' conditions will ever improve if those long-standing perceptions prevail," Riwanto said. (10)