Opposition needed in democracy

Opposition needed in democracy

In accordance with its democratic system, Indonesia is now
heading for the presidential election runoff on Sept. 20. The
system that has been adopted in many developed countries respects
the existence of an opposition party, to check and balance the
government.

The notion that this system is against our state structure
because it is from the west is a strange one, which sounds even
more absurd coming from noted political leaders.

Yet, their reasons, which are based on one of the five
principles of the state ideology Pancasila, are understandable.
The principle states that democracy should be led or guided by
the inner wisdom of deliberation among representatives. However,
the previous government misused the essence of this fourth
principle and rejected the existence of an opposition party.

In this reformasi (reform) era, most of our political leaders
have the same perception of the meaning of opposition. They would
benefit from cooperating with the government, rather than
functioning as the opposition.

I hope the next government can fully understand the meaning of
democracy. As in the first round of the presidential election
campaign, one of our candidates advocated the existence of the
opposition in order that the government can be controlled.

SUNGKOWO SOKAWERA
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