Seeds of a civil society?

In the beginning there was the idea to involve the community in the day-to-day governance of the city. By so doing, the Jakarta city administration would be able to free its hands of the management of practical minor matters such as road and drainage maintenance and garbage collection to those who stood to benefit from the endeavor -- the people.

Naturally, the city administration would still provide the funds and material as well as the manpower that would be needed for the job, but in essence, the responsibility for overseeing and carrying out the local management of such minor affairs would be in the hands of the citizenry.

That was the idea as conveyed by Jakarta's Deputy Governor for Development, H. Budihardjo, to the press some 18 months ago. Eventually, said Budihardjo, people would become aware of their rights and their duties. "If up to now everything is taken care of by the government, eventually the community itself will be involved in matters from neighborhood management to managing sidewalk vendors."

Thus the issuance of Regional Ordinance No.5/2000 for the setting up of Subdistrict Councils -- or Dewan Kelurahan -- whose task it would be, among other things, to convey the aspirations of the populace to the administration and to provide the city administration with propositions or suggestions regarding development schemes regarded necessary by the people in their respective neighborhoods. Further, to assist their local subdistrict administrations in explaining potentially controversial policies to the populace and to empower the people in their neighborhoods.

All that, of course, is highly commendable. In theory at least, the councils would place democracy where it belongs: In the hands of the people, rather than the hands of the political parties. It would make democracy less elitist than it currently is. Much criticism has been thrown in recent months at the address of the Jakarta City Council, the city's provincial-level legislature, whose factions are accused of representing their respective political parties, more than their constituents.

More than that, putting the common Indonesian tendency towards skepticism aside for a while, the councils could well be seen as embryos for the civil society that this nation is currently so desperately trying to establish against so many odds. In all, some 265 subdistrict councils would be set up, in agreement with the number of subdistricts in Jakarta.

Unfortunately, setting up those councils in reality proved to be more complicated than it looked on paper. First, the initial target of having all the councils established by the end of January last year had to be abandoned. In a number of areas a scramble ensued among candidates for seats. In several neighborhoods, the election process went on despite a lack of attendance, thereby giving rise to suspicions of foul play. In other areas, members were appointed, rather than democratically elected and there were reports of prospective candidates trying to "buy" appointments as council members.

As a result, the first subdistrict councils were installed only in August last year, more than six months behind schedule, but even then the problems have not ceased. There were reports of a council member being apprehended by police for carrying drugs. And perhaps more seriously, there have been reports of assistance, submitted to subdistrict councils to help victims of the recent big floods hitting Jakarta, not reaching their targets.

Does all this mean that the subdistrict councils had better be abandoned and the councils that have already been set up disbanded? Obviously not. In principle, there is nothing wrong with the idea per se. What is wrong is execution of the idea. Perhaps more time is needed to educate the community as to the true significance of the councils which Indonesia's future civil society could grow if all is tackled properly.

Admittedly, achieving that goal is a big job. But nothing is achieved without effort. As they say, no pain, no gain.