Juwono warns against too much freedom

Juwono warns against too much freedom

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Education and Culture Juwono
Sudarsono said on Wednesday the country had gone too far too fast
in its search for political freedom and called for some
restrictions to minimize the possibility of bloodshed during the
June general election.

Juwono said he had asked the government to ban outdoor rallies
and restrict campaigning to indoors in the run-up to the June 7
poll.

"I have asked the home affairs minister (Syarwan Hamid) to
consider our recommendations... that campaigning should be
limited to closed public buildings and that street rallies should
be banned," he told a meeting of the Indonesia-Australia Business
Council.

The council invited Juwono to speak on the current social and
political events.

People hope the June election and a subsequent presidential
election will usher in a new era of democracy and freedom in the
nation after 32-years of autocratic, army-backed rule by former
president Soeharto.

Pushed by growing demands for political reform, his successor,
President B.J. Habibie, promised to hold general and presidential
elections in 1999 instead of waiting until 2003, when the nation
was next scheduled to go to the polls.

But Juwono said that civil strife in recent months showed that
Indonesia still lacked the necessary social and economic
foundations for political freedom.

"The pendulum has swung too far in favor of political
openness," Juwono said.

Juwono said that the nation was "perhaps moving from the
Chinese model of government to the Indian model of democracy".

"(We are moving) from a period when the government was
centralized with very firm control exercised through the
military, the bureaucracy and one dominant political party,
toward one that will be very open, very loose and very unfocused.

"I am of course more pessimistic than my colleagues...because
I have seen in the past few months that in that respect I think
perhaps we have gone too far too fast.

"The desire for political democracy and openness is juxtaposed
with a period of endemic economic deprivation. I think that
combination is about the most dangerous possible for political
stability."

Juwono said that intermittent violence between ethnic and
religious groups was inevitable when a country was in a period of
transition, uncertainty and had wide economic disparities.

Juwono also said that he would "persuade" Habibie to
reconsider banning students from studying abroad before the age
of 18 to prevent their national ties and loyalties from being
eroded.

"(But in the 1989 law on national education) I do not see any
article that specifically bans students from studying abroad...so
based on the letter of the law...my own feeling is that I could
perhaps persuade the President to reconsider (the ban)."

Citing a cartoon in Kompas daily, Juwono pointed out that
Habibie and one of his sons were both educated in Germany. (byg)