Indonesia's democratic pangs

Indonesia's democratic pangs

A new moment of truth beckons a restive Indonesia in its emotive quest for constitutional democracy. As a vast archipelago-state already shattered economically in recent years, Indonesia now faces an unprecedented test in its nervous experiments with democratic rule of law.

The Indonesian optimists tend to believe that a critical mass of political resurgence is almost imperceptibly taking shape, while the prophets of gloom point to a spiraling crisis in basic governance itself.

For those hoping for a scheme of order that might follow the incremental chaos of the present moment, a glimmer can be seen in the latest decision by the agenda-managers of the People's Consultative Assembly to discuss the impeachment of the beleaguered President, Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid, on Aug. 1.

This constitutional activism has been triggered by the collective will of the House of Representatives.

Given the inadequacy of Indonesia's evolution as a resurgent democracy, the present political puzzle in Jakarta cannot be easily explained with conceptual precision or an exactitude of terminology.

Indonesia's titanic struggle for a sense of direction, let alone a democratic order or an economic revival, is of considerable importance to the larger international community in the present context of changing power equations.

As a populous country, which now is at risk of losing the battle for democracy, Indonesia has often been shaped in the past by its military forces. The peculiarities of its political evolution, punctuated by Sukarno's energetic but erratic rule and by Gen. Suharto's authoritarianism, account for this.

It is, therefore, a matter of some importance at this stage that the military leaders are generally believed to have refused to collaborate with Mr. Wahid in his uncharacteristic effort to try and consolidate his hold on power.

They may have actually advised him against proclaiming an emergency with martial law as its core. The current mood of the military establishment, which has yet to recover fully from its own shocks of recent years, cannot yet be taken as the defining reality.

-- The Hindu, New Delhi