Scholar concerned over democracy
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's commitment to democracy will remain weak as long as the government puts economic growth above political development, a scholar said yesterday.
Riswanda Imawan of Gadjah Mada University said that the greatest concern was the enormous potential for conflict within the society which, he said, was highly heterogeneous in terms of ethnicity, culture and religion.
Political, and thus democratic, development brings with it consequences that could make the potential conflict burst into the open, said the lecturer in political science.
"The situation has prompted the government to implant 'Politics No, Development Yes' in the people's mind," he said in an interview with The Jakarta Post.
The heterogeneous nature of Indonesian society explains why the development of the economy and politics did not go hand-in- hand as they did in countries like Taiwan or South Korea, where the community was basically homogeneous, he said.
He added that both South Korea's and Taiwan's success in political and economic development was largely due to the role of the Americans, who wanted to use those countries to counter- balance communist North Korea and mainland China.
"In Indonesia, we should not worry about foreign ideologies but the potential conflict within our society," Riswanda said.
He added that Indonesia was sociologically so heterogeneous that it needed 40 years before all organizations could accept (the state ideology) Pancasila as their common principle.
In 1985, following long and often tense debates, Indonesia passed a law that required all socio-political organizations to have Pancasila as their sole principle.
Riswanda said that the difficulties encountered in developing the political system in Indonesia had caused the bureaucracy to adopt the traditional views of the dominant Javanese ethnic group.
He said that in the concept of democracy, for example, the state had adopted one which adored deliberation for consensus, as traditionally practiced in Javanese villages.
He said Indonesia had "carelessly" adopted village-style democracy at the national level, resulting in numerous weaknesses. (har/pan)