Indonesia's 60-year journey

Indonesia's 60-year journey

Benget Simbolon Tnb., Jakarta

A just and prosperous Indonesia. That was a shared dream, growing
out of an awareness that Dutch colonization had to be stopped and
an independent Indonesia be declared.

Last week the nation just celebrated its 60th year since the
proclamation of independence. Long enough to expect some good
results. But instead of getting closer to realization, we seem to
be moving further away.

Imagining such a long wait, a question came to mind: Where did
we go wrong? A very long answer can be made. But perhaps it can
be summed up in brief: It was due to the "we're-the-best"
approach during the Old Order, the "Father-knows-best" formula
during the New Order and now -- due to democratization -- it
could possibly be called the "everybody-knows-best" approach.

Externally, founding father Sukarno took the "we're-the-best"
approach through his lighthouse policy, which tried to impress
the best outside but hid the bad things inside.

Internally, all groups, especially those involved in politics,
were scrambling to get attention that their opinions were the
best. No one seemed to be willing to compromise with the reality
facing the country.

That condition forced the first president to resort to
applying his 'guided' democracy, which then authorized him to
become president-for-life.

As powerful as he was, he became unchecked. A social disaster
occurred as development programs were derailed to meet his own
political interests.

The New Order under president Soeharto took over the country,
with the support of many Indonesian people, hoping that the dream
of a just and prosperous country could be realized.

He changed the strategy. This time the economy was made the
"commander" of national development.

To guarantee the success of the economic program, he applied
the "father-knows-best" formula. He centered all powers around
himself and his cronies. His government was very strong, but
civil society was very weak.

With the "father-knows-best" approach, political communication
was one-way. No debating of policies, no criticisms, let alone
protests. People were only required to listen and to do as they
were told.

With all institutions "depoliticized" and public rights
severely suppressed, Indonesia has become a politically retarded
society.

It was for this reason that Indonesians could not maturely use
the freedom they got as a process of democratization that
followed the fall of Soeharto.

Like poor people, used to an income of hundreds of thousands
of rupiah per month, now suddenly they were getting millions of
rupiah. They went on shopping sprees to buy unnecessary consumer
goods rather than the productive goods they so badly needed.

The situation, combined with the failures of the last three
administrations to lift them from crisis, has encouraged an
"everybody-knows-best" approach within society.

Everyday across the country, different groups of people stage
demonstrations, demanding that their problems or their views be
addressed first by the government.

Such a tendency has been growing since 1998, from the era of
President Habibie, to President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, to
President Megawati Soekarnoputri, and now the incumbent President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

And if the incumbent government fails to perform to
expectations, the public could easily become enraged again. And
this tendency, as usual, will get out of control as each of them
try to force their will onto the government. When this time
comes, it will be a disaster for the existence of Indonesia as a
nation.

Thus far, President Susilo has made many promises.

The government's actions so far have mostly been the result of
reactive thinking rather than projective thinking, which should
focus on attacking problems at their roots and anticipating
things in the future based on extrapolations of the current
situation.

Such actions could be noticed when the government tackled the
bird flu disease recently. They jumped to the conclusion that our
poultry had become infected with bird flu and had to be culled.
But they were wrong, causing damage to the economy.

They also returned to the old ways of solving problems. The
latest example being the government plan to revive the notorious
Bakorinda (Regional Intelligence Agency), which suppressed public
rights throughout the tenure of the authoritarian Soeharto
regime.

Through its public relations stunts, it has been wasted too
much energy trying to please the public rather than addressing
the root of problems facing the country. This can be seen through
his broken promises and the setting up of a 'hotline' number for
the people to report complaints.

The government has to realize that there are too many problems
to solve in this country. But addressing them all at the same
time is simply impossible.

It has to make prioritize resolving urgent problems first,
including corruption. And it must develop a shared awareness of
the issues so that the public willingly contribute to the efforts
to solving them.

That way, the public will see that the government is making,
not breaking, efforts to realize the shared dream.

The author is a staff writer for The Jakarta Post.