Helplessness pervasive among Indonesians

JAKARTA (JP): A pervasive feeling of helplessness is still reigning over most Indonesians, and they have a tendency to remain silent in the face of injustices or other difficulties, a scholar says.

Dr. Marwah Daud Ibrahim, a legislator from the House's Commission I on security and political affairs, said on Wednesday that this helplessness is a legacy of the authorities' domination during the first 25 years of the New Order government.

Speaking during a monthly dialog at the Jakarta Arts Center, Taman Ismail Marzuki, Marwah was commenting on the glitches in the present implementation of democracy, including the recent bans against the public appearances of a literary figure and a human rights activist.

Poet/playwright Emha Ainun Nadjib was barred from staging his play in Ujungpandang, while activist Adnan Buyung Nasution was prevented from speaking in a seminar in Surabaya, East Java.

According to Marwah, her meetings with people in rural areas, for instance, has convinced her of the magnitude of problems the people face. However, she said she detected an encouraging development because most people "are capable of articulating their grievances".

In the discussion attended by several literary figures and also by Adnan Buyung, Marwah examined the ongoing changes affecting the pattern of domestic political communication.

However, despite various shortcomings in the present situation, there are many reasons to be optimistic, she said.

Marwah, who is also a leading member of the ruling functional group Golkar, identified a number of fundamental changes Indonesia has undergone during the last several decades which promise even better development in the future.

Among them are better economic conditions, more access to education, advancement in science and technology and better abilities among people to comprehend problems, she said.

"There is an overall increase of confidence,..which helps spur transformations in political communication," she said.

According to Marwah, the future pattern of political communication will change, from the previous centralized flow to a more decentralized nature.

"Politics will be more pluralistic and participatory in the future," she said. "The government will have to distribute more responsibility for political communication to non-state actors."

More say

Political communication will also flow from "bottom-up" rather than "top-down", meaning that ordinary people will have more say in the decision making processes. "This in an inevitable development, as people become more educated, better informed and will want more access to policy making," she said.

In order to help usher in such changes, both the people and the government should discard many of the old, often polarizing, views about many issues.

"Take politics, for example," Marwah said. "Perhaps we should discard its old definition, which is a struggle of power, and take up a new one, which is the management of the nation."

"If we want this positive transformation to take place, we should take a more synergic view of life," she said. "We should pool the energy of the young people and the wisdom of the old, balance the roles of civilians and the military, the government institution and the non-governmental organizations."

Several participants in the discussion promptly branded Marwah's opinion as "far-fetched", "unrealistic" and "too idealistic", and came up with a long list of "proof" that such transformation is still far away.

"Our young people now are mute, inarticulate," said Hardi, a painter. "The art bans are proof that we are still subjected to political engineering by the power holders. And politics is still a struggle for power."

A student participant protested Marwah's presentation, saying that no positive transformation could be made by leaving the greater portion of political power to the authorities alone.

Marwah countered the criticism saying that favorable development has already arrived, and that it represents "raw material" for greater democracy.

"Certainly we need to nudge the machinery to start it off, and above all we need a psychological change, in order to erase the feeling of helplessness," she said.

"But we're moving, because the government has no other course except to, for instance, decentralize authority. And we should not just wait for the government to do the whole job."

She also reminded the participants that "important change is the accumulation of many small changes."

"Even the banning of some people serve as a way to awaken our vision and brings hope of more freedom," she said. (swe)