Political openness not yet real: Observers
JAKARTA (JP): Several political observers lashed out at the government yesterday for its feeble attempts at democratization and political openness, saying it has failed to follow up words with deeds.
Eros Djarot, former chief editor of the DeTik weekly banned last year, and Marzuki Darusman, member of the National Commission on Human Rights, took a critical stance in a discussion on political openness and the globalization of information yesterday.
"The government has not followed up (its promise for greater political openness)," Eros told around 100 students participating in the lively discussion held by the National University in South Jakarta.
"The government talks about globalization and democratization, but the bans on certain people and organizations to hold seminars or dialogs continue anyway," Eros said.
He reminded his audience that even now, 30 years after the abortive coup of the now-outlawed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), the authorities still stamp a "former political prisoner" label on the identification cards of people involved in the uprising.
"This becomes an inherited sin," Eros said, pointing out that the children of those former political prisoners, despite their innocence, also have to bear the consequences.
"Political openness still resides only in the minds of the people," he added, urging the government to be more politically open-minded.
Another critical discussion took place in Semarang, where ulema and scholar Abdurrahman Wahid and political observers Afan Gaffar and Soehardjo focused on democratization.
Abdurrahman, who is also chairman of the 28 million Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Moslem organization, said democratization is nothing more than a topic of debate among political elites.
"There have never been complete discourses on democracy," he said. He pointed out that successful talk of democracy depends on the existing balance of power, which is currently tilted in favor of the executive branch.
Afan Gaffar, a staff-lecturer at the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University, took another view, though no less critical. He said the nation has all the "formal requirements" needed to establish democracy, but those factors are not allowed to operate optimally.
He described the condition as "democracy in formality only".
Soehardjo, a staff lecturer at Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java, agreed with Abdurrahman Wahid.
"People in the lower layers of society don't know the meaning of democracy," he said. "They are too preoccupied with the difficulties of earning a living."
In the discussion in Jakarta, Marzuki Darusman said political openness can serve as an information filter.
"Globalization of the information system may lead to a globalization of misinformation since it is often difficult to select which information is relevant (for certain communities)," he said.
He also reminded the audience that globalization of information may also result in the establishment of a mono- culture.
"It's possible that someday a prophet will be less famous than Michael Jackson," he said.
Eros, who is also a famous musician and cinematographer, pointed out the futility of the authorities current approach in dealing with globalization of information--for instance, by merely reminding people not to absorb information which goes against the nation's ideology.
Instead, the government should now employ "political and legal" approaches, he said with elaborating.
Proof of the inefficient approach lies in the fact that both the state-owned TVRI television station and private television stations are full of programs which are very "open" by Indonesia's cultural standards, he said.
He also said that there are no guarantees that globalization will accelerate the development process here. (imn/har)