Rulers must heed people: Analysts

Rulers must heed people: Analysts

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After a month of massive demonstrations by teachers and students,
the central government has endorsed the decision of the Kampar
Legislative Council to dismiss controversial Regent Jefri Noer.

The decision was welcomed by thousands of teachers, students
and civil servants in the regency, who had united to oust Jefri.
After hearing the decision, which was announced by Minister of
Home Affairs Hari Sabarno last Thursday, they paraded through the
city of Bangkinang, the capital of Kampar regency, some 60
kilometers west of Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province.

Following the celebration of Jefri's dismissal, the situation
in Kampar began to return to normal. Teachers and students said
they would go back to class, while civil servants were ready to
return to their jobs.

But the protests in Kampar, which some people have described
as a "people's power" movement, leave us with two questions: What
can we learn from this? And where do we go from here?

Political analyst Mochtar Pabottinggi said the protests "show
that democracy works in Kampar. In democracy, people are
sovereign. Having held a series of protests that involved large
numbers of people, Kampar residents played their role as an
effective pressure group, which is legitimate in a democracy," he
told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Mochtar said there must have been something wrong with the
regent to get teachers to protest repeatedly.

"The teachers, students and civil servants apparently were
deeply disappointed with the regent, so they took to the streets
to protest against him," said Mochtar, a researcher at the
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

Mochtar said he believed the demonstrations represented the
true wishes of the people of Kampar and were not engineered.
Kampar is home to 400,000 residents, and the protesters attracted
tens of thousands of people.

Syamsuddin Harris, Mochtar's colleague at LIPI, said the
country's leaders should learn from Kampar.

"I read reports in the media that the regent was authoritarian
and arrogant. This could be a precedent to teach other leaders to
be more careful in the future," he told the Post separately.

Regent Jefri could not be contacted on Saturday for comment.

The trouble in Kampar began last month when Jefri threw a
school principal out of a meeting after the principal questioned
him about the budget allocation for education.

The incident outraged teachers and students in the regency,
who united in a major protest several days later. Thousands of
teachers and students joined demonstrations over the course of 12
days, paralyzing education in the regency. The protests forced
the Kampar Legislative Council to hold a plenary meeting that
resulted in the decision to dismiss Jefri.

The regent had been the target of public anger before this
incident, including over allegations he used a fake high school
diploma when he ran for regent three years ago and his habit of
repeatedly replacing senior civil servants.

Syamsuddin said all elected officials in the country should
learn a lesson from the events in Kampar.

"This people's power movement would not have happened if the
legislative council understood the wishes of the people. The
massive protests happened because the council did not function
properly," he said.