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.