Individual empowerment a must for democratization

By Donatus K. Marut

JAKARTA (JP): Debates about the nature of democracy have been long lasting in political science: between the supporters of democracy as government by all adult citizens and supporters of government by elites, or the rule by citizens and the rule by the experts (Robert Dahl, Democracy and Its Critics, 1989). In most democratic countries, the rule by citizens through various democratic machines has become the final choice.

The presence of formal forms of political machines as indicated by the multiparty system and free election superficially shows that Indonesia is moving toward democratic politics. But these formal indicators are not sufficient.

Indonesian politics is still an elitist game -- the prominent political actors are those from urban and central elites. The political parties were founded and are chaired by those who are living in the centers and have minimum access to their constituents in rural areas and outer islands.

If democracy is perceived as the rule by all adult citizens, then democracy is still far away from reality in Indonesia because the citizens are in fact still substantially excluded from the real political process. This is caused by at least two factors -- first, because of the strong paternalistic culture in which citizens are still bound to patrons and urban elites, and second, because of a long repressive-authoritarian regime that had succeeded in creating floating and politically apathetic masses. These factors have hindered citizens from becoming competent political actors.

If they participated in the last general election and registered as members of political parties, it is mostly because of sentimental drives (political euphoria) rather than rational and critical judgment. So the main challenge for developing democracy in Indonesia will be to strengthen the capacities or to improve the competence of its citizens.

The presence of many political parties has indeed provided more chances and channels for people to participate with more choices in the political process. So are also the free operations of organizations that are functioning as semipressure groups, such as non-governmental organizations and students' organizations. These social and political organizations are macro-foundations of democracy. Through these organizations, political interests, short-term and long-term, are articulated. The dynamics of interests articulation will determine the whole democratic political processes.

But these macro-foundations are not sufficient for developing a democracy. Organizations established in Indonesian cultural settings cannot automatically contribute to the development of democracy. It is inevitable that the paternalistic culture in society is still strong, and this can paralyze the democratization process.

The social and political organizations are various and spread throughout the country, but if the organizations are established on patron-client relations, the organizations could hinder the democratization process. What emerges in society is patronage and total obedience to the patrons and to the traditional "consensus" which are accepted without debate as the tying factors of the organizations.

These tendencies will not only become seeds of oligarchy but also instruments for establishing parochial and sentimental obedience and bondage. Who appears in politics are not the citizens but patrons who are able to mobilize supporting masses using sentimental symbols which do not liberate the citizens but instead repress them. The symbols can be rooted in religion, ethnicity, class and historical romanticism. These engagement symbols are the main hindering factors of real democracy.

The last elections showed this tendency. Many political observers divided the political parties into two main categories: Religion-based parties and nationalist-oriented parties. Meanwhile, the main references for voters to choose parties can be grouped into three: party leaders, traditional (religious) sentiments, and historical romanticism or nationalism.

The first group elected parties such as the National Mandate Party (PAN); the second group elected the National Awakening Party (PKB), the United Development Party (PPP), and other small religious parties; and the third group elected the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Even PAN itself, which was assumed to be an open party, is still dominated by religious groups, particularly members of the second largest Muslim organization Muhamadiyah.

Sentiments toward romantic nationalism, Sukarnoism and antipathy to the ruling government became driving factors for people to vote for PDI Perjuangan, although most of them are unfamiliar with the party's representatives.

Citizens' choices were still dominated by sentimental drives rather than rational judgment. This is dangerous because the public can be fragmented into these in-group sentiments that in turn may create both latent and open conflict in society. Therefore, it is necessary to start developing other crucial foundations of democracy.

The basic units of political process in a nation-state are actually individual citizens. Democracy is a struggle for the interests of individual citizens. That the individuals then use organizations, social and political organizations, to further their interests, is part of the democratization process. But the main key is the individual citizen. Every individual has his/her own preference in the political process. The presence of democratic organizations has to be a consensus or an affinity of the preferences of all individuals associated with the organizations.

Macro-foundations -- such as a multiparty system, free elections, a free press and free association -- are weak if they are not supported by strong micro-foundations, namely the individual citizen in society, whether an ordinary citizen, leader or ruler.

Strong democracy requires strong micro-foundations -- individual citizens who are capable of making free choices through mature and critical judgment without being influenced by binding and nonliberating symbols. Critical judgment is encouraged if individuals have the capacity to think independently in determining their life goals, preferences and orientation in their lives. Individuals are not intimidated by sentimental symbols that have eliminated their freedom as individuals.

To enable the emergence of critical citizens, who are capable of making critical and free choices and decisions, requires continuous individual empowerment. Only empowered citizens are conscious of or are able to materialize their free will and are able to make free decisions. The empowerment process is important to break up all false democratic symbols, such as obedience and bondage to organizations and associations that have long bound and enslaved individual citizens.

To support the individual empowerment process requires continuous political education or political dissemination for citizens. Political education is intended to achieve at least some preconditions for individual citizens' empowerment.

First, the development of evaluative capacities of every individual citizen, that is the capacity to make priorities of their involvement in both political and sentimental collective actions. Critical individuals will be able to make judgments on the achievement of exclusive group objectives and obligations as well as justice for society at large. Individuals with evaluative capacities will be able to ascertain criteria before making decisions on whether to participate in political problems or in other collective actions.

Second, to make sure that individuals have adequate knowledge. Knowledge is the most important component that influences the roles of individual citizens. Citizens, in order to be able to play appropriate roles, have to have sufficient knowledge about their social and political environments, such as information relating to policy choices and their impacts or information concerning group activities or other collective actions and their impacts.

Individuals also are encouraged to analyze the knowledge they have in order to really understand the preferences they chose, and therefore be convinced that their choices are the preferences that have been critically judged.

Third, because political action is part of collective actions, while collective actions are part of the actions of the individual citizen, individual citizens have to also be equipped with a cognitive map that will help them decide whether a problem or an issue is really political that needs mass collective action or only an individual action or action of an organization or group within society for exclusive aims of the groups.

This empowerment process of individual citizens is important to empower people in making their own political choices and to prevent the development of a democracy that merely prioritizes mass mobilization. People are supposed to participate in politics not because of strong obedience or bondage to organizations' symbols or organizations' patrons, but because they have their critical and free choices according to their own preferences. With these capacities, each citizen will be able to make free decisions in determining their involvement in political roles. The roles will be adequate and competent as well as conducive to the achievement of stability and the effectiveness of democratic institutions.

This is the arena where social and political organizations should play in order to strengthen the democratization process, namely the empowerment of individual citizens through continuous political education, not binding the citizens to obedience or bondage to the organizations that in turn paralyze their freedom. Without empowerment of individual citizens, a free political process will become only a struggle between one mass group against the others, that in turn would ruin democracy.

The writer is a development observer, active in political education in grassroots communities, who lives in Jakarta.