PIB and its intellectuals seek to take reform to a higher level
PIB and its intellectuals seek to take reform to a higher level
Anton Doni, Head of Research and Development Unit,
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The dilemma of idealistic intellectuals ahead of the first
election after Soeharto quit the presidency in 1998 was whether
or not to get their hands dirty by becoming politicians.
However, if political leadership is about making the best
decisions possible for the nation as whole, and changing the
narrow-minded culture of accumulation and/or abuse of power, then
those with the best minds should enter the political fray.
The economist Sjahrir, once a student activist jailed for his
involvement in the huge 1974 protests in the early years of the
New Order, is among quite a number of intellectuals who seem to
have decided that their jobs as scholars and as staunch critics
of the government must now be complemented by actual influence in
the making of policy.
Sjahrir has joined forces with a number of respected senior
journalists and fellow economists such as Pande Radja Silalahi to
form the New Indonesia Alliance Party (PIB), named after an
earlier organization.
The political party was born just last year, but since the
1980s, students and intellectual community in general, have long
been familiar with the Yayasan Padi dan Kapas that Sjahrir and
his colleagues set up, and which hosted many seminars.
The challenge for this high brow circle is to create a broad-
based political party, especially if it wants to avoid being
considered a group of intellectual elitists, which is what
happened with the banned Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI).
New parties always have a novelty value with new ideas -- and
PIB's focus is ridding the country of the negative culture and
practices that define Indonesian politics, even in the current
reform era. One specific problem pointed out in a speech by
Sjahrir was what he termed "re-traditionalism", or communal
sentiments that continually provoke communal conflicts due mostly
to exclusive in-group feelings.
Another is just plain irrational behavior by those in power,
and so PIB envisions "the politics of common sense", or "a common
social phenomena", which he believes, if people lived by these
basic themes, they would not kill each other.
Before the party was set up in September 2002, the PIB
organization prepared and sent a draft of a decree on economic
recovery to the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) ahead of the
Assembly's annual 2001 session. The nine-chapter draft decree
ranged from tackling the country's debts to its internally
displaced people. It was not adopted, but it did give the public
a very clear picture of the party's stance on economic recovery.
The draft decree outlined how recovery should be based on a clear
division of responsibilities among state bodies, including law
enforcers.
As recorded in Sjahrir's various speeches, injustice and
unemployment are two of the party's key concerns and it will be
interesting to see if they can translate such great ideas into
action, that is, if they manage to secure a bloc of House seats
in the election.
Freedom is also a concern of this party. Since the reform
movement, freedom of expression and association are mostly
accepted nationwide. But in some cases, religious freedoms are
not entirely respected.
For this, the party feels that security must be provided under
a democratic environment to guard freedom of religion for all
people, not just the majority.
One feature that distinguishes this party from the other 23 is
its great concern for international affairs, without the baggage
of ideology which many of the Islamist parties seem to be prone
to. It envisions a well-ordered world that ensures security,
peace and prosperity for all. In that context it protested the
U.S. war in Iraq.
The party's stress on freedom and social justice, its focus on
the role of government, its strength in international affairs and
its drive to modernization, brings to mind the above-mentioned
PSI, which was banned for its alleged involvement in rebellious
movements in the 1950s.
In the classic Indonesian Political Thinking, 1945-1965 in
which Herbert Feith and Lance Castles compile translations of
speeches and articles by early politicians, one can read the
words of the late prominent economist and leading figure of PSI,
Sumitro Djojohadikusumo. He also seeks to convince the Indonesian
public that freedom, social justice and human dignity should be
the substance of nationalism.
Internationalism and modernization were also characteristics
of this historical party, grouped in the category of "democratic
socialism" by the late Feith. Those themes were articulated more
strongly by Soetan Sjahrir and Soedjatmoko, also proponents of
PSI.
But again PIB would not like to be likened to PSI, which only
got two percent of votes and six seats in parliament following
the 1955 elections despite its high profile.
PIB may gain support from among 2.5 million university graduates
and 5 million people with higher education degrees. But hopefully
PIB members themselves will not follow other idealists who found
that many still prefer communalism and irrationality, all that PIB detests.
Excerpts of PIB's vision/mission:
o To strive for a new Indonesia that is democratic, equitable,
pluralist and open minded;
o To strive for the creation of a safe, peaceful and prosperous
world based on independence, democracy, humanity, justice and
plurality.
The party strives to achieve the above ideals with programs
including:
* justice -- the state provides jobs, education, health
services, a fair tax system and stable economic growth;
* democracy -- the guarantee and protection of security to all
citizens in exercising their democratic rights; and the guarantee
of protection for human rights; equality of all citizens and the
encouragement of their participation in decision-making;
* plurality -- the state must not discriminate against
citizens in issuing political policies and in applying the law;
the state must ensure freedom of religion and belief; the state
must guarantee the free development of local arts and cultures;
the state is obliged to ensure a harmonious environment among all
religions, ethnic groups, races and classes within the unitary
republic.