Political scientists launch 'civil society' talks

Political scientists launch 'civil society' talks

By Pandaya

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): A group of Indonesian political scientists has added yet another item to the government's political agenda, already lengthy with issues like democracy and human rights -- the development of civil society.

Their argument is this: the strong, overbearing nature of government in Indonesia has stunted the growth of civil society.

Something must be done to reverse this process, according to members of the Association of Indonesian Political Scientists (AIPI).

This week AIPI organized the first national seminar on how society can strengthen its bargaining position in relation to the state and thus foster the development of civil society.

Attended by a selected audience of about 100 people, the seminar, held at the East Nusa Tenggara Legislative Council building, was lively, as political scientists seized on the 'civil society' idea just as fervently as they had taken up the issues of human rights, democracy and political openness back in the late 1980s.

In the presence of local bureaucrats and lawmakers, there was blasting criticism of the bureaucracy as fresh ideas flowed freely between academics from numerous universities.

"The civil society issue is really camouflage for the debate on democratization and human rights," said Riswandha Imawan, a political science lecturer at the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University.

The message of the seminar appears to be similar to earlier demands for democracy, even though it takes a different form: That the government should provide some space for the people to express their creativity and use their resources.

Further, the present situation retards the emergence of "serving leaders" as opposed to "ruling leaders", a political problem which hampers the democratization process, participants argued.

A mature civil society, by contrast, enables the public to participate in decision-making and guarantees that people have the right to fair treatment by the state apparatuses, it was contended.

According to Riswandha, the ruling elite is watching the growth of the civil society movement with suspicion, in the same way that they responded to earlier campaigns for democratization and human rights.

The movement, he says, is not a form of rebellion as some bureaucrats think. "The underlying principle is that 'I don't criticize the government, I support the government critically,'" he said.

The growth of the civil society movement is apparent from the increasing number of cases in which citizens dare to oppose government policies, he said.

Over the past couple of years, Indonesia has witnessed several such "rebellions", when people have rejected leaders that the central government has selected for them.

These included in the election of provincial governors, regents and in the leadership elections of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) in December 1993 and the Nahdlatul Ulama, a large Moslem organization, in December 1994.

The seminar, the 12th that AIPI has conducted since its birth 10 years ago, is billed as focusing on "leadership and civil society towards the 21st century."

AIPI officials said the theme reflects their concern about the trend of political development in recent years; in which, they argue, society finds itself "powerless" in the face of the strong government.

AIPI chairman Nazaruddin Syamsuddin said that, to make things worse, feudalistic attitudes are still rife within Indonesian society, a phenomenon which further hampers the growth of democracy.

"Our nation is challenged to develop a civil society which is autonomous and has some sort of civic competence to formulate, discuss and communicate their problems, and to achieve common well-being," he said.