Signs of political immaturity

Signs of political immaturity

The campaigns of the 1997 general election have grown
increasingly violent. Regretfully, reports of vandalized public
facilities, human casualties, clashes between supporters of rival
election contestants and between campaigners and security
officers, terror on the roads and other acts of mayhem fill the
pages of our newspapers every day. Meanwhile, we also know that
the costs involved in holding the elections are immense.

Amid all the acts of violence and vandalism and the
considerations of costs involved, we also note a number of
dishonest practices that have been committed which degrade the
quality of the 1997 general election. The leaked Gading Cempaka
document, Operasi Fajar (Operation Dawn), the letter of
instruction circulated within the Ministry of Information and the
mobilization of first-time voters in East Jakarta are a few cases
in point.

For the past three decades, mobilization, machinations from
above, and control and stability preservation have been the main
instruments used in the execution of our development efforts. As
we enter a new era, however, a demand has emerged for the
allowance of greater popular initiative and autonomy, for setting
up a political mechanism that operates from below, for the
extension of political rights and for the institution of a style
of government based on consensus.

So far, general elections have been functioning only on a
formal plane: They have been effective in providing legitimacy to
the government, but they have not been successful in actuating
people's sovereignty or establishing a representative government.
The 1997 general election shows that while society has undergone
an economic transformation, people have not necessarily become
politically mature. While the political trappings of state are in
place, the democratic process has yet to be completed.

What we see at present signals the convergence of a
politically immature political system with a society that is
equally politically immature. Under these circumstances, neither
barring campaigns nor disposing of the general election
altogether would offer a solution. It would be more meaningful to
revise our present structural, procedural and control-oriented
political development program and redirect it so it can bring
about greater maturity.

-- Republika, Jakarta