Reinventing Indonesia's civic community

Reinventing Indonesia's civic community

Rochman Achwan, Sociologist, University of Indonesia,
Rachwan@indo.net.id

Why do most ordinary Indonesians have to live their everyday
lives with turbulence, insecurity, horror and other uncivilized
means of violence? With the latest being the Bali tragedy,
Indonesia seems to have embarked on an expedition into the most
alien, most dangerous "continent" of her very own self -- given
the series of terror and violence since 1998.

One must search among others into what is wrong with the
world's biggest experiment of democracy -- it is that it neglects
the extraordinary energy of the community. Instead of reinventing
it, Indonesian communities are experiencing a sort of contraction
and feebleness, unable to cope with the increasing uncertainty of
social, political and economic life.

The public arena as an arena of salvation and enrichment of
networks tends to be subdued and replaced by political and
criminal hoodlums. It is a "defective and elitist"
democratization which develops here -- one marked by a
combination of popular political parties and the exclusion of
community members to take part in the process of political
decisions.

After four long years of the reform era, no single macro
institution seems to care about the politics of development of
civic communities. Most political parties do not have any
political platform for the enhancement of communities to
participate actively in public affairs. They have consciously
neglected their key function as facilitators for the development
of communities' social skills, which would enable self-
management of public affairs which affect them.

While parliamentary politics seem to become the most important
playing field, sadly political backroom-dealing has become the
norm of the day. Political parties tend to transform themselves,
not as political bridges mediating different interests between
the state and their constituents, but as hierarchical houses of
power controlled by their elite, while power is distributed to
their clients through the means of backroom-dealing. This we call
"political bossism".

Such a system denies different interests in the community.
Thus the four long years of reform is characterized by the
disconnection between political parties and communities.

Regional autonomy was expected to bolster the rise of civic
community in Indonesia. After more than a year of its
implementation, however, there is little signs towards this
development. The establishment of village councils mandated by
the law tends to neglect the richness of the communities' energy.

In this time of economic turmoil, studies have shown that the
political disconnection and feebleness of village councils have
led to the loss of interdependency of urban and rural areas, from
the centers of social, political and economic resources.

Many of the customary rotating credit system (arisan),
neighborhood-based organizations, rural cooperatives, and other
traditional institutions have been abandoned because such
institutions have been unable to help people cope with the
crisis. Hence ironically in the march towards democracy, these
institutions, so far the social bridges connecting communities
and their larger surroundings, are vanishing.

The explosion of various types of violence in Indonesia in the
last four years can be understood as a manifestation of
contraction of social solidarity at the community level. It is
feared that the tendency and forces behind such violence work
faster than the forces of democratization.

There are clear indications that social violence has developed
consistently; also, "political bossism" characterized by
deepening political corruption is increasingly coloring the
canvas of Indonesia's public arena. No doubt such an environment
becomes fertile land for the rise of demagogue and irresponsible
politicians.

It is high time that a "roadmap" be prepared for Indonesia, to
enable us to reinvent civic communities. Such a map should inform
of the goals and mechanisms to achieve them. In contrast to
traditional communities, the reinvented civic communities must be
universally inclusive, allowing the participation of different
ethnicities, and followers of different religions and political
views; and communities which are also inclusive of different
layers in society. By doing so, every civic community has access
to develop broader networks beyond the boundary of its territory.

The creation of such an social infrastructure must be combined
with the introduction of a government-sponsored social policy.
The mechanisms of implementing such a policy must be changed
drastically. In contrast to its previous role, the government,
through the Coordinating Ministry of Social Welfare, has to
facilitate, not determine, the real basic needs of community
members.

The strategic role of this ministry becomes more and more
important as leading universities, government bodies, and
multilateral and donor institutions have been initiating and
implementing development programs in civic communities. This
administration needs to launch a policy of community initiative
to bring about a more civilized society in Indonesia.

The writer heads the University of Indonesia's social research
center, LabSosio.