New Order faces legitimacy crisis: Scholar
JAKARTA (JP): The New Order government of President Soeharto will face a legitimacy crisis unless it proceeds with democratic reforms, an academic said yesterday.
Mochtar Pabottingi of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said the Soeharto administration's political legitimacy is at stake following the administration's focus on national stability for over 25 years at the expense of democracy.
"Apart from his spectacular achievements in political stability and economic development, Soeharto's development policies put his legitimacy at stake," Mochtar said in a seminar sponsored by LIPI.
The two-day seminar held in memory of Alfian, one of Indonesia's greatest political thinkers who died two years ago, reviewed the Indonesian political format under the New Order, the phrase used to describe successive administrations under President Soeharto since he came to power in 1966.
Acknowledging the necessity of sustainable development, Mochtar suggested that the government also nurture democratization as the more educated public increasingly demands.
The government's tight control over political forces has enabled Soeharto to implement his economic policy practically without opposition, he said.
Soeharto rose to power in the middle of the 1960s when Indonesia's economic situation under the late president Sukarno's guided democracy was in deep chaos.
The concentration of economic and political power in the hands of the elite has since made the implementation of development programs smooth, Mochtar said.
"But the bad thing is that it has given rise to monopolistic practices, favoritism and collusion between bureaucrats and big business," he said. "These problems hamper efforts for equal distribution of development gains."
Highlighting economic disparities among social groups, Mochtar pointed to noted economist Soemitro's widely reported statement made last year. The theory went that approximately one percent, mostly Chinese Indonesians, of Indonesia's 185 million people, control 80 percent of the development cake.
"Marginalization in economics and politics will continue to take their toll on the indigenous people. Many are beginning to feel the tension ... they feel abandoned in pursuing the nation's ideals," he said.
Well-known popular revolts that developed into bloody incidents in Lampung, Tanjung Priok and East Timor over the past decade illustrated just how much people's trust in the government has waned, he added.
The New Order government, the argument goes, glorified political stability for "too long", creating the impression that Indonesia was in an everlasting state of emergency.
He said while the state ideology Pancasila encourages public political participation and equal distribution of state wealth, the New Order has prevented such participation and closed its eyes to unequal economic growth.
"The New Order is facing three dilemmas all at once: The choice between economic growth and equal distribution; between political stability and participation; and between cosmetic and true democracy," he said.
Mochtar suggested that the bureaucracy allow democracy through "correct" elections, representative and clean government.
The Armed Forces (ABRI), he said, should also review the concept and implementation of the increasingly debated "Dwifungsi", a doctrine that enables it to play politics in addition to its regular defense job.
Meanwhile, Father Frans Magnis-Suseno, who presented his paper on human rights and democracy, defended the government's policy of relying on national stability to develop the economy.
Security, he argued, was a precondition for any society to build a prosperous nation. "Development is impossible without stability," he said. (pan)