KIPP reflects rise of civil society

Since its establishment on March 15, the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP) has been making headlines. Kastorius Sinaga sees this as a sign of the ascent of a civil society in Indonesia.

JAKARTA (JP): Responses to the committee founded by a group of independent-minded intellectuals are mixed. Some fear that it could become a tool for a political movement that would mar next year's general election. Others have spontaneously supported the new non-governmental poll watchdog.

Fourteen similar independent poll watchdogs have since sprung up in various provinces. Volunteers by the hundreds have expressed their willingness to assist the committee in monitoring the general election.

That it has won extensive support is of particular interest.

Like the Namfrel election monitoring body in the Philippines that emerged in 1983, the committee has been set up by pro- democracy non-governmental organizations. Its executive board represents various pro-democracy NGOs nationwide, such as the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union, the Indonesian Students Solidarity for Democracy, the Democratic People's Association, the New Masyumi and the Legal Aid Institute.

In the provinces of Aceh, Yogyakarta, West Kalimantan and Bali, NGOs promptly followed suit by setting up committee branches. This is interesting because it explains the basic change taking place in the realm of NGOs in Indonesia.

For the first time pro-democracy non-governmental groups in Indonesia have closed ranks in forming a coalition through the poll watchdog, leaving behind their usual sporadic and compartmentalized nature. As a coalition of middle class and progressive intellectuals, the committee comes close to being the fulfillment of a dream long cherished by NGOs in Indonesia.

The founding of the new poll watchdog is closely related to the people's increasing participation in politics. For decades political participation has been reduced to serving the interests of the government's development programs through the implementation of the "floating mass" policy and the security approach. In recent years there has been an increasing demand for political reform. People have begun to challenge the government's authority in the nation's political life.

The rising public resistance is characterized by a new reality in the form of rival institutions against state-run institutions like the Indonesian Farmers Committee, set up in 1992 to challenge the government-sponsored Indonesian Farmers Association, the Association of Independent Journalists established to counter the official Indonesian Journalists Association and the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union, which opposes the government sponsored All-Indonesia Workers Union Federation.

In short, in these past five years government-backed institutions, which are seen as tools of the state, have faced a string of challenges.

The rival non-governmental institutions wish to accommodate the aspirations and interests of the common people and to exert some influence on state policies.

The Independent Election Monitoring Committee was born with the zeal to improve the quality of democracy in a state based on law in which the people's sovereignty stands supreme. Because general elections are the basic instruments for the realization of people's rights and sovereignty, safeguarding their quality is of the utmost importance.

Like other state-run institutions, the official Election Supervision Committee only serves the government's interests. A survey of the 1992 general election by Dr. Alexander Irawan and Endriana SH found that there were almost no sanctions imposed by the government in the cases of the 900 instances of fraud reported. This is understandable because of the 1,019 suspected agents of fraud, 464, or 46 percent, were state bureaucrats.

In this context it is clear that the Independent Election Monitoring Committee does not aim to discredit the official supervision committee's work. It is simply a political indicator showing the growing pressure for the establishment of a civil society. Its existence implies that there exists a feeling that the government's role should be reduced.

The writer is a lecturer in social sciences at the post- graduate studies program of the University of Indonesia in Jakarta.