Old faces won't bring back the New Order govt

Old faces won't bring back the New Order govt

Christian Chua, Jakarta

There are many candidates for the post of Indonesian
president. To have a choice is good, and indeed, for a
functioning democracy, it is essential. However, looking at the
candidates, their backgrounds, political upbringing, programs and
promises -- as they are known up to now -- doubt continues to
exist about whether there really is a wide range of politicians
and politics from which to choose, or if actually the Indonesians
have been left without a real alternative.

Of course, the outcome of the presidential election is
important. The only question is: primarily for whom? It will
change lives -- the lives of the candidate who manages to get
into the highest office and her/his (future) cronies. It matters
for Jakarta's tiny elite, but for the remaining 220 million
Indonesians it hardly makes any difference.

Admittedly, it depends on the person, personality and
political affiliation of the future president as to whether X law
is implemented, if Y money is spent for education, or if Z
investment is done. These, however, are only cosmetic
modifications.

This is not to say that such decisions are unimportant. They
are just not of utmost relevance in the run-up to the election,
when people need to know for which kind of policies a candidate
stands.

In internal party primaries or in daily politics such issues
need to be discussed. But for presidential elections there should
be drafts and counterdrafts, programs and their alternatives, not
just seven versions of an otherwise similar platform, where
differences are beyond recognition.

In many democracies people do not have a real choice: Kerry or
Bush in the United States, the Christian or Social Democrats in
Germany. Who cares? If two-thirds of all eligible voters turn up
for elections, it is already celebrated as a magic moment for
democracy.

Only six years after the end of Soeharto's New Order, these
elections seem to be finally killing the reformasi movement. The
country's first ever direct presidential election is disguising
itself as the final destination of the democratization process.
What a pity, because it ought to be the beginning, not the end
point of the slow process toward a more democratic, more open,
more equal and more just society. But the once dynamic reform
movement of 1998 seems to have vanished forever.

The superficial ways the candidates are presented and present
themselves fit well inside this picture. Content is, at best,
secondary. Image is what counts. To be a good singer or to have
the looks of a "poster boy" suddenly has become a vital quality
and more relevant than programs. But this is the presidential
election, not Indonesian Idol. It is all about style. The
substance of the system remains undiscussed and, in the end,
untouched.

There are important interests behind this that want the old
system to live on. These interests are either so powerful that
even a president cannot rule against them -- or, more likely, are
shared, exploited and furthered by the highest office itself,
whoever may hold it.

Not even the rather unconventional Abdurrahman Wahid managed
to isolate himself as president from the structures, forces and
traditions of the New Order, even though he used to be one of its
major critics. He encountered too much resistance and too many
hindrances for reformasi, and finally got embraced by the
temptations and necessities of a still prevalent system with
well-tried dirty practices.

All of the candidates are long-established politicians.
Whoever will be in power in the future, a real disruption of
political continuity cannot be expected. In the worst case, the
main pillars of the old system will officially return to power:
Golkar and the military. But the worst case is not much worse
than other probable cases.

Nobody yet has forged a platform that genuinely represents the
long-excluded masses, that revives the demands of the reformasi
movement and that will bring about substantial change. All we can
expect is, at most, some new (or not so new) names and faces that
will not challenge the fragile post-Soeharto political
accommodation.

Indeed, by only meddling with the symptoms of a rotten system
they guarantee a survival and recovery of old-style alliances
between political powers and big business, a collusive
partnership that ruled Indonesia from the mid-1960s on. Real
change is not an option for the actual political elite, because
genuine reformasi will threaten the very interests of the new
powerholders.

The number of people wishing back the good old days and the
New Order continues to grow. They need not worry too much.
Whoever wins the presidential election, the new order won't be as
new as the ones who personate it want us to believe.

The writer (g0203849@nus.edu.sg) is a sociologist at the
National University of Singapore.