Promoting democracy

Promoting democracy

President Soeharto said the state must have the courage to
abrogate the rights of political groups that abuse democracy in
order to destroy the nation and the state, as well as democracy
itself. We consider the President's words as a signal for us to
be more resolute in promoting Pancasila Democracy.

In our Indonesian political heritage, we comprehend democracy
as being a philosophical legacy and as a concept concerning
people's rights that we inherited from the West. This Western
philosophical concept of democracy extols a process of decision-
making that is based on a 50-percent-plus-one vote.

On the other hand, the decision-making system that we have
acquired from or own Indonesian cultural legacy advocates the
process of deliberation toward consensus. Actually, this process
makes it possible for us to hold open discussions of problems in
order to arrive at a consensus in which nobody will consider
themselves as winners or losers.

Why was President Soeharto so forceful in encouraging the
state to abrogate the rights of the above-mentioned political
groupings? One purpose of the statement seems easy enough to
grasp: We must adopt democracy as a system without giving rise to
acts of anarchy and while continuing to promote democracy on the
basis of our Pancasila ideology and our Constitution.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta