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.