Mochtar and political irrationality

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Political scientist Mochtar Pabottingi may not have had too many phenomenal achievements in the course of his career, but his consistency in life is exceptional -- one that the nation can be inspired by.

Since he was a university student in the 1960s, he had been a staunch critic of the government. And it is his consistency that gives him extra strength to be a government critic still.

Unlike the Javanese style of criticism, which is indirect and often ambiguous, Mochtar, a Buginese calls like he sees it to the point of irritation for some of his targets.

Because those targets are government officials and politicians, it is they who often get annoyed by his remarks.

Instead of keeping a distance from Mochtar, annoyed government officials and politicians have tried to offer him positions or money to silence him, but Mochtar is not having it.

"Several groups have offered money, but I've always turned them down. If I accept their money, I am a sell-out," Mochtar told The Jakarta Post at his small house in the crowded housing complex in Rawamangun, East Jakarta.

He even once rejected an offer to become a speech writer for then president Soeharto in 1995 -- a position that he said was later taken up by Yusril Ihza Mahendra.

Mochtar is among a scarce breed of folks in this country.

While some people, scholars and politicians compete with others to collect money and to pile up assets, he rejects all the offers in order to maintain his consistency and integrity.

With his wife Nahdia Julihar and four children Pilar Muhammad, Muhammad Yogaswara, Dian Harigelita and Adhya Pandunagri, he lives in the housing complex with mostly working class neighbors in Kayu Putih, Rawamangun.

The house has no front yard, just a 2-square-meter patch of earth where a guava tree and a carambola tree grow. A few orchids and bougainvilleas grow in small clay pots around the trees.

That pretty fauna threaten to take over the small front porch, where a set of chairs and piles of newspapers are placed.

The lane that runs up to the house is just wide enough for bajaj, far too narrow for a car to traverse.

"What is beauty? Is it when we have a Mercedes-Benz or a Jaguar? Is it when we possess several plush houses or apartments? The perception of what beauty and dignity are among people in this country is shattered."

"Many people here perceive someone's dignity to be related to amount of assets he or she owns regardless of its source. They don't care if it the assets are products of corruption," he said.

Although he lives a modest life, Mochtar can still enjoy life with his family. Almost everyday he and his wife walk around the horse-race track in Pulomas, near their house.

Mochtar also reads at least two newspapers The Jakarta Post and KOMPAS and a weekly magazine TEMPO.

"Once in a while, I go out of town to visit my family," said Mochtar, a senior researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

Many of his colleagues have taken the offers of prestigious jobs at various government offices, but he turns down any such offers.

"I don't aim to become a director general or other something equivalent. I think there are a lot of people who are ready for those posts. I have planned to dedicate myself for the nation. I have been trying to fight against the (political) irrationality of this nation," he said.

By "political irrationality", Mochtar means all practices that contradict democratic values.

He noted that he was not alone in the fight against political irrationality, while naming others like sociologist Ignas Kleden, journalists Goenawan Mohammad and Daniel Dhakidae, former justice minister Marsilam Simanjuntak as his comrades in the fight.

Born in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi, on July 17, 1945, Mochtar spent his childhood and adolescence in the province. He moved to Yogyakarta in 1969 to get his degree from the Gadjah Mada University before getting his master's degree in 1980 from the University of Massachusetts and his doctorate in 1983 from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

He also received some of the most prestigious scholarships in the world, including Fulbright-Hayes, the East-West Center and the Ford Foundation.

Upon returning home from Hawaii, he was assigned to head the Department of Development and Comparative Politics at the Center for Political and Regional Studies at LIPI.

He is not only known as a political scientist, but also a poet. As a political pundit he has written some books and as a poet he has published two books -- a collection of his poems.

Mochtar, however, does not consider himself a political scientist or a poet.

"I consider myself as a defender of this republic. It is an immeasurable mandate or task. My patriotism has grown since I was a kid," he said, adding that his father once cut telecommunications wires in Bulukumba during the struggle for independence and was chased by Dutch troops.

He acknowledged that his sense of patriotism is shaped by three basic components: the principles of Buginese, the teachings of Aristotle and the value of Islam.

As a Buginese he had been taught to always follow the principles of lempu' (straight), geteng (tough), aca' (smart) and warangi (brave).

"Sadly, now the Buginese have largely forgotten those principles. Now, they feel ashamed if they don't have cars or luxurious houses," he said.

Becoming a political scientist, Mochtar always emphasized the need to understand the essence of democracy, namely the need for solid checks and balances.

His doctoral thesis titled Nationalism and Egalitarianism in Indonesia 1908-1980 obviously shows his strong interest in understanding the history of the Indonesian politics. It took six years to finish, and much of the time was spent reading literature.

After reading various volumes on Indonesia's politics, he came to the conclusion that the founding fathers' understanding of democracy was very limited.

According to Mochtar, the founding fathers had read many books, but he believed they did not read those by philosophers like Tocqueville, Aristotle or Plato.

"The founding fathers were mostly trapped in socialism. They thought all the problems could be settled through socialism. They were trapped in an ideology dispute, which made them fragmented. They never talked about checks and balances."

"Bung Karno dissolved Konstituante (the law-making body) and Parliament. Meanwhile, his successor Soeharto brought in Javanese politics and learned from the (evil) practices of the Dutch colonial regime," he said.

Mochtar emphasized that Soeharto imitated the policies and actions of the Dutch colonial rulers.

He explained that the economic activities in Indonesian waters were very lively before the Dutch arrived. The indigenous people ruled the trade with foreign sailors. It is all clearly described in Raffles's History of Java.

"Imagine...at that time even female sailors could lead vessel trading as far as China. It shows how lively our ocean in the past was," he said.

The Dutchmen then came and took control of the trade. They restricted trade between indigenous people and ordered that all crops and minerals be sold to them at discounted prices.

In the first half of the 19th century, the Netherlands East Indies Governor General Van den Bosch introduced the tanam paksa (forced cultivation) policy, under which farmers were forced to grow certain plants for the benefit of the colonial rulers.

During Soeharto's era, the political irrationality was abundant. The New Order administration said politics was no good and the nation should focus on development. It suppressed any democratic movement, controlled the economy and the legislature, which was supposed to watch over it. Thus, the government ran the country without any controls from the public. This led to the growth of nepotism, collusion and corruption.

"For me, the New Order administration was not authoritarian. It was a political system built in a time of emergency. The regime was built after the 1965 massacre (of suspected communists and their sympathizers). It introduced a system of command that did not tolerate discussion. To make it worse, the legislators during the New Order were mostly appointed," he added.

Mochtar has explained the political irrationality in his new book titled Roots of Political Irrationality in Indonesia scheduled to hit the market later this year.

Given the great amount of political irrationality here, Mochtar said the success of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration would very much depend on the ability to fight corruption and revive good law enforcement.

"Either in the long or short run, the government must put the corrupt tycoons and human rights violators on trial and imprison them. It will create a deterrent effect and stop the violations."

"Corruption and human rights violations continue to take place because we have failed to put Soeharto on trial," he explained.

The downfall of Soeharto's regime was a result of the people's demand for reform, and the landslide victory won by Susilo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla during the presidential election indicated that the public had confidence that they could bring about true reforms.

Unfortunately, he said, the Susilo-Kalla administration appears to have violated the principles of democracy set out by James Madison, the fourth president of the United States. Madison stated that governments must not appoint anyone based on race, religion, class or group, but solely on merit.

Mochtar cited as an example the appointment of staff members of the vice presidential office. He said that the staff members were mostly from South Sulawesi, the same place where Jusuf Kalla was from.

"If we want to build democracy we have to give equal opportunity for all people, otherwise we create little empires. It is weird that his staff is mostly Buginese from South Sulawesi. That is not good. There must be a place for other ethnic groups," he said.

Mochtar reiterated that Indonesia had never entered into the reform era. From his perspective, the present era is not one of reform, but a continuation of the New Order.

"Soeharto has stepped down, but the system is still intact. In fact, the New Order regime is getting stronger with the local administrations' elections," he said, referring to the victory of several candidates from Golkar -- the political machine of the New Order.

Mochtar emphasized that his criticism of the presidents, be it Sukarno, Soeharto, Habibie, Gus Dur, Megawati or SBY, were not based on hatred.

"In fact, it is because of my love for this country. They have been given a mandate by the people, but they did not use it appropriately," Mochtar said.

He quoted a phrase from Brutus, who was explaining why he stabbed Julius Caesar to death.

"It is not because I love Caesar less, but because I love Rome more. It is not because I love the presidents less, but because I love Indonesia more," he said.