Postscript to a popular festivity of democracy

Postscript to a popular festivity of democracy

By Marianus Kleden

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): The bloodshed feared by many
analysts and by the public did not become a reality during the
last political campaign. Peacefulness and brotherhood expressed
in the concurrent rallies, simultaneous hoisting of party flags,
the talk on coalitions and the signing of communiques were
unprecedented.

It is true that there were minor conflicts between party
adherents and harassment of some parties by other quasi-party
fanatics, but a greater part of this unpleasant political by-
product was better explained as political fabrication rather than
by inferring the presence of tense animosities between parties.
It was Gus Dur who pointed out the involvement of "hired ulemas"
behind the clashes ((The Jakarta Post, May 31, 1999).

Another laudable occurrence -- so long championed by human
rights activists and freedom fighters -- is the free, honest and
fair general election. Except in Aceh and insignificant
transgressions in some of Habibie's strongholds, the predicted
intimidation, the "dawn raids" -- terminology for the ruling
party's usual practice of browbeating bribery just hours before
the vote -- and cheating in ballot counting so far have not been
validated.

Despite Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung's reluctant acceptance
of the preliminary results, many party leaders welcomed them with
smiles. The preliminary results also indicate that efforts to
engineer an authoritarian conscience, that is a conscience formed
through an introduction and inducement of values, views and norms
from without while ignoring the internal independence, and using
religious sentiments, were ineffective.

If there is anything regrettable about the recent campaign and
general election, then it was not the clashes, harassment nor the
inducements, but the unnecessary hara-kiri of party supporters
leading to a total death toll of at least 40.

Several important points can be inferred from the national
festival of democracy.

First, through a random but quite representative sampling, we
can see the satisfaction of voters as they expressed that the
general election was conducted in an honest and fair manner. This
is the first real general election carried out after 45 years,
some observers said.

A new democracy is coming into being and this is the first
important step. Referring to a booklet What is Democracy?
recently published by the U.S. Information Agency, Indonesia can
rightfully be described as making meaningful progress in securing
the birth of the third largest democratic country after India and
the United States.

A democracy is characterized by people's sovereignty as long
as it is manifested in a government with consent by the governed.
But since the consent cannot cover every individual in the whole
country, it is represented by the majority without ignoring the
rights of minorities, which implies a tolerance for political,
economic and social pluralism as well as a readiness for
cooperation and consensus.

A democracy also would guarantee basic human rights, equality
before the law, a transparent and appropriate legal process and
constitutional limitations on terms in office.

We are grateful to Habibie for the courageous steps he has
taken in incorporating various political groupings in
governance, in securing freedom of speech and assembly (including
freedom of determination for East Timor), in creating an
atmosphere for a free press, in releasing political prisoners
and, most importantly, in maintaining free and fair elections.

However, all this progress is counterbalanced by his
awkwardness in Soeharto's case, which does not do any better
concerning the principles of equality before the law and a
transparent legal process, which places him in a difficult
position to retain his presidential position.

The second point has to do with Akbar Tandjung's reluctant
acceptance of the preliminary results of the ballot count. His
reluctance gave some hints of an anticipated post power syndrome.
But the fact that there was no blatant rejection of the results
insinuates a dilemma between Golkar's past effectiveness, which
was target-oriented, and the General Elections Commission's
present efficiency, which is process-oriented.

The dilemma positioned Akbar in acrophobic disorientation.
Placed in the national context, this also is a dilemma between an
ambitious target-oriented attitude in any aspect of development
or pragmatism usually practiced in the past, and a similar
ambition to ensure a correct process and procedure in running the
country which can be equated to idealism, despite the fact that
it slows down the pace of development.

Which one is better? For the future government, neither the
Machiavellian maxim "the end justifies the means" nor the
Platonic ideal is applicable.

Thirdly, the current pseudo-grouping of political parties --
popularly known as pro status-quo and proreform -- will
eventually evolve into a real regrouping which would gradually
revive the old political order known as nationalists and
Islamists.

A student protest in Ujungpandang exhorting voters not the
vote for a female leader nor a party consisting of non-Muslim
members gave us some clues to this old alignment. Does it make
any relevance for the common good of the country?

Sukarno made his political debut as a nationalist but later
became a syncretic, culminating in his promoting a possible blend
between nationalism, religion and communism popularized under the
acronym Nasakom. Soeharto came forward as a nationalist but as
his power was increasing in an incredible fashion, he began to
mutate into a pseudo-nationalist. In fact, he was a real
pragmatist for almost his entire tenure in that his economic
program justified the stability and the stability measures
justified the oppression and suppression.

His pragmatism also was observable in his practical
interpretation of holistic prosperity. Without theorizing too
much, holistic development of human beings is something like
plowing a rice field while building a mosque or a church, or
erecting a huge statue of Christ in East Timor after a systematic
genocide.

In the last years of his office, when his power was declining
and challenges threatened his rule, Soeharto adopted a typically
Islamic name and lived a seemingly pious life.

Habibie, with a strong German background, came to Indonesia as
a technocrat, became the chairman of the Association of Muslim
Intellectuals, took over the presidential post from Soeharto, but
what is his political orientation?

It is not that clear. What is all this about, after all?
Analogously speaking, it means that as far as humanity is
concerned ideology is very relative and that we are not serving
the ideology, but the country and the people.

With this in mind, we may conclude that recent concurrent
rallies and simultaneous hoisting of party flags were nothing but
a foresight of future governance where democratic principles are
secured.

The government does not become acrophobic because of an
ideological discrepancy, but is guided by the principles of
effectiveness and efficiency in bringing about a newly
interpreted holistic prosperity.

The writer is a social science lecturer at Widya Mandira
Catholic University in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.