Mon, 29 May 2000

Freedom, love the new democracy in Indonesia

By Tishy Bruce

JAKARTA (JP): Freedom is one of those words used frequently without much understanding of its connotations.

Freedom and love are, in many ways, interchangeable words. Freedom and love are a by-product of integrity. Integrity is the ability to live your life honestly and with a sense of wholeness within yourself--both qualities that stem from self-love.

Self-love means allowing individuals (you) to be unique - to express your own way of being. Countries are made up of individuals.

Indonesia is undergoing a change from being a country filled with fear to becoming a country where freedom is allowed: where self-expression is being allowed. This is a process which is happening throughout the world. Because it is new it is scary and, because it is new, it requires commitment. It requires practice.

Indonesia and its people are crying out for politicians and businessmen and their fellow man to live with integrity. Indonesia is tired of double standards; it is tired of dishonesty and manipulation in its many guises. It is too tired to be tolerant of anything but a return to self-respect, honesty, and decency.

However, although these "ideals" seem like basic rights, in order for them to be attained or achieved, an ability to see the overview and an ability to understand the process of change to those ideals is necessary.

It is also necessary to see all the different guises of the current situation that are the root causes of the present difficulty, and to examine what those ideals actually mean.

Gus Dur has the ability to steer Indonesia to succeed in its quest, but it may be hard for Indonesia to see through the chaos of the moment to see where he is doing things right.

The recent article published in The Jakarta Post (Insight: by Soedjati Djiwandono on May 11) was, I feel, excellent. That article stated that the reason Gus Dur is so committed to, for example, allowing communism is because allowing people to choose is part of democracy. It recommended looking at a lot of rules and regulations that hamper choice: choice of schooling, religion etc. I agree.

Like adolescence

This is a fledgling democracy. It can be likened to adolescence, a time for parents to let their children gradually spread their wings in the knowledge that they eventually need to choose their own way.

If one restricts access to knowledge that is not giving your adolescent freedom of choice. You, as a parent, should trust in the inherent ability of your own child to choose -- to know -- what is right or wrong.

Like adolescents, you are always there for them (you support them, care for them when they are ill, etc.). You give them a good background education.

However, you know that your child must follow their own path. Not your path. Their path. It may be different. It may be new. Part of love and part of your responsibility as a parent is to allow your child to learn from the experience of trying out different things and allowing them to make their own decisions on what is right for them within the limits of acceptable behavior (which are basic societal rules such as "do not kill", "do not steal" etc., but not any particular religious credo).

The freedom that parents allow their children during adolescence generates some fear. Will your child be OK? Are you allowing too much or too little freedom? What levels of freedom do you allow?

Freedom - democracy - is a new path. Old paths are much easier to follow. They "feel" right. They are easy to walk along. They are well worn. They are understood. You've been walking them for so long you no longer question them. You no longer know any different.

Walking a new path requires commitment: the road is not smooth. It is easy to fall back into the old path. It is actually sometimes quite difficult to even see the new path as you may have to hack it through undergrowth or well-established plants and trees.

You will be inexperienced at seeing the new path until it is finished and the undergrowth is cleared. The "undergrowth" includes fears based on a never-questioning attitude (caused by passive/rote learning and caste systems), past legislation, old habits, KKN (corruption, collusion, nepotism), etc.

Freedom like love - requires a commitment to the whole concept of freedom/love. Freedom is a skill that requires practice. Freedom requires caring and compassion. It demands tolerance. We love - we allow freedom - in order to produce a feeling of security, pleasure, a reduced fear of loss, a state of knowing what freedom and love is.

Stay balanced

This millennium year is a year signaling the start of changes. As individuals you can make changes easier if you stay balanced and learn to cooperate with the forces of change.

Staying balanced is much easier if you learn to see the entire situation. The world is looking at Indonesia to see how it handles the changes happening now as the Far East is a pivotal area for world economics and power.

Just like the rest of the world and all its peoples, Indonesia is having to look at its qualities and discern what is good, what is bad; what is honest, what is not; what is best in the longer term, what is not, etc. This is called learning to become an emotional, mental, and spiritual adult.

Freedom (and love) are empowering. Adulthood does not begin at some magical age. It does not begin when we have children. It begins when one becomes wise.

Indonesia is moving into adulthood. It needs to keep its energy levels high to ride through the learning experiences in the easiest way possible.

As an individual living in Indonesia you effect this country. You effect it with your energy. As a loving adult, it is your responsibility to keep your energy beneficial for you and for this country, and, indeed, this world.

As an individual you create best when you feel good about yourself. Inside. You cannot feel good about yourself if you are not honest with yourself.

Being honest needs awareness. You need to be aware of what reduces your energy levels. Struggle, fear and feeling unloved all reduce your energy. Not taking advantage of "coincidences" (such as chance meetings that could prove beneficial, chance remarks that could help you, and not using your intuition (i.e.not trusting yourself) all reduce your energy.

One way to keep your energy level high is to maintain a deep awareness that YOU are doing the best you can and, in order to do the best you can, you need to be free from fear - of any sort.

You need to be aware of what creates fear and you need to feel God inside you. Feeling God inside you is possible when you know that God is in everything around you and that you are part of God. Meditate. Pray. Remind yourself of the beauty around you. Understand the overview; stay balanced. Look to the real cause of fear: it is lack of self-respect and lack of love.

Every breath that you take is the Breath of Life. Be aware that when breathing in, you breathe in the goodness of God; and in breathing out you can release the goodness of you to the rest of the world.

Every step you take, every movement you make, every thought you have has an effect on the macro-consciousness of this entire planet and the entire Cosmos, so be a master of your fears by making sure that you don't live in a fear-based world.

Freedom to love, to choose, to express to BE promotes creativity, clarity, enthusiasm, hope and expectation. All of these emotions make you feel wonderful, majestic and happy. Be free.

The writer is a spiritual healer and counselor.