Federal system best way to end separatism issue

Federal system best way to end separatism issue

In recent weeks the nation has seen the awakening of
separatist aspirations in a number of locations, including in
Irian Jaya. Catholic priest-cum-novelist-cum-architect-cum-social
worker Y.B. Mangunwijaya believes that creating a United States
of Indonesia is the answer to these problems.

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Papua New Guinea patriots have openly
demanded freedom. The demand was made without fear in the center
of Jakarta. Had they done so in Jayapura or Biak they would have
been shot dead.

Gubernare est previdere et providere, goes an ancient Roman
saying. Have a forward vision and make appropriate arrangements.
Understand the signs of the time, please, and weigh the natural
consequences of 30 years of Soeharto's iron-fist security and
self-censoring fear.

In the 1950s a unified state with a firm centralized rule was
necessary to confront our former colonial masters. Even during
the years of economic growth from 1965 onwards, a centralized
state was a prudent and appropriate superstructure for the
country. But the iron rule of Soeharto since that time was too
cruel to bear. Fascistic methods became all too common and the
further you traveled from Jakarta the more common Nazi SS-style
practices became.

Wisdom and courage are required to learn from the ancient
principle of Roman statesmanship lex agendi lex essendi, the law
of action is the law of doing.

A peaceful and democratic centralized government can rule a
nation of five million people. But for a similar governing
institution to rule a huge and heterogeneous mass is impossible,
unless it resorts to the language of violence. Is that really
what we want?

Even the late president Sukarno himself, as chairman of the
Committee for the Independence of Indonesia, declared to the
Central National Committee of Indonesia (an embryonic Indonesian
parliament) on Aug. 18, 1945, that the proposed Constitution was
a: "...somewhat tentative Constitution, a lightning Constitution,
or you could call it, a revolutionary Constitution. Later we
should make a Constitution which is more complete."

Thus the 1945 Constitution was not meant to last forever.

A nation with such a diversity of people, spread as they are
across an area larger than Europe, can only develop in a
democratic fashion if a decentralized state becomes a reality.

The young generation, who will guide our republic in the 21st
century, need explicit guarantees to protect their basic human
rights and this would best be served by a federal framework for
the state.

But do the young generation demand federalism?

Yes, the concerned and the committed do.

They never knew Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta. They cannot
appreciate the enormous difficulties which they both had to face.
They did not experience first hand the heady rush of excitement
as Indonesia took its first tentative steps as a free and
democratic nation. The young generation only know what they have
been taught about Sukarno in the New Order's brainwashing
Pancasila courses.

Although our young generation did not taste the early joys of
independence for themselves they have experienced the New Order
regime at first hand.

They are now fed up with great leaders, corrupt authoritarian
bureaucrats and threatening generals with their one-way command
over a centralized state and society. Indonesia Incorporated.

They don't want another big leader. Gadjah Mada University
rector Dr. Ichlasul Amal pointed to the very heart of the matter
when he said in a seminar some time ago that: "the new generation
is basically federalist".

The 1950s required unity and so a strongly centralized state
was created. However in seeking a model for the state as we
approach the 21st century I would like to draw your attention to
the famous message of our great democrat and independence fighter
Mohammad Hatta, who knew his own people's character very well. He
warned against the wrong kind of unity when he said: "We too
struggle for persatuan (unity), that's why we reject persatean
(being stuck together like meat on sate skewers).

So, if we earnestly wish to stay away from a wave of
separatism started by our Papua brothers; if we don't want to
imitate a crumbling Yugoslavia, with ethnic divisions widened by
the ambition to create a Greater Serbia, or Greater Java for that
matter, then we should stop and think. We should ask if a
government which greedily sucks the wealth from the outer regions
of our country is really the best way to organize Indonesian
society in the 21st century.

If the answer to this question is no then we must prepare --
through studies, seminars, discussions, discourses and the
drafting of a wise and strong Constitution -- to build a country
that will genuinely suit the needs of Indonesians in the 21st
century.

We must prepare to build a United States of Indonesia.