Expert warns against hasty regional polls

Expert warns against hasty regional polls

JAKARTA (JP): A world-renowned expert on international
politics said here on Wednesday that the hasty introduction of
elections of local governments could ignite separatism in the
country's provinces.

Samuel P. Huntington, an American scholar who is known for his
1996 book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World
Order, said the government had to be "sensitive" to the potential
consequences of introducing regional elections while "the
processes of consolidating a democratic system are still
underway".

"The premature introduction of elections for regional
governments could provide incentives for political candidates to
make regional appeals against the central government and thus
exacerbate pressures towards national disintegration," Huntington
told an international seminar on the problems facing Indonesia in
its quest for democratization.

Citing the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia as examples,
Huntington said elections held at the subnational level had
allowed politicians competing for power in the individual
republics to mobilize the ethnic and cultural identities of their
state against the central political authorities. Once in office,
the politicians had every reason to promote independence, he
said.

As part of the full implementation of regional autonomy in
January 2001, the government is drafting regulations to include
direct local elections.

Huntington said the first requirement in the country should be
to promote the transition of an electoral democracy into a
constitutional democracy which adopts, among other things, the
institutions and procedures which would insure the rule of law
and the independence of the judiciary branch of the government.

"At the moment, there is much more to be gained by promoting
constitutional democracies than there is in trying to introduce
electoral democracies to countries that have only known
authoritarian rule," he said.

President Abdurrahman Wahid, who was present on Wednesday to
briefly address the seminar, has pledged to restore democracy,
the civilian supremacy and the rule of law -- things which were
virtually unknown during the past regime.

Military comeback

Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono, who also spoke on
Wednesday, reiterated, however, that the civilian leaders'
failure to construct a "healthy and strong" political atmosphere
would lure the military back into power.

"I haven't seen the emergence of an organized collective
philosophy on the part of civil organizations," Juwono said.

He added that he would like "to see more interdependence
between non-governmental organizations, civil society, youth
organizations and political parties".

He also criticized the political parties for the lack of
transparency in their financial management.

"The law stipulates that personal contributions must not be
more than Rp 15 million a year and corporate contributions must
not exceed Rp 150 million, but is this being enforced? Is there
any transparency? I very much doubt it," Juwono said.

He added that creating a healthy political atmosphere would
now depend on the performance of civilian politicians.

"Democratization is for the civilians to lose rather than for
the military to step back into," he said.

Unfortunately, according to Juwono, Indonesia has not achieved
a level where a sufficiently strong civil society has emerged. He
defined such a civil society as being people who have enough
affluence to be directly involved in political activities.

"According to my estimates, there are only 20 million
Indonesians, or 10 percent of the population, who can really
afford to be involved in day-to-day politics while the rest are
still trying to make ends meet," Juwono said, noting that 30
percent was considered a benchmark.

He said that Abdurrahman was now "being tested" whether he
could establish a democratic process while also maintaining
stability and security.

"Gus Dur (the president's popular nickname) has strong beliefs
that state intervention should be calibrated in a way that would
encourage local and cultural initiatives.

"But this carries risks because he opens up he political
system while the economic situation is not conducive to
stability," he said referring to the country's economic crisis.

Juwono said that it would be his responsibility now to provide
a limited role for the military and police in order to maintain
"a semblance of stability" and establish economic growth and
foreign investment in the country.

Foreign investors have repeatedly raised concerns about the
country's volatile security climate.

Juwono said on Tuesday, however, that security personnel were
finding it difficult to meet minimum performance standards
required for maintaining security given the inadequate funds that
have been allotted to them.

"It is not an easy job to provide protective security for
installations as far away as Arun in Aceh and Freeport in
Papua ... and this is made much more difficult by the
discrediting of the military and police over the past two years,"
he said. (byg)