Smita on the fledgling democracy

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Smita Notosusanto may be petite physically, but it seems she has not lost the energy to articulate the need for reform of the country's electoral system.

Maybe that is a reason why she has been branded a crusader for reform of the electoral system in Indonesia.

"I feel tired sometimes, but if I slow down I'm worried that the door to democracy that has opened in this country will be closed. If you look carefully, you can see the indications," she told The Jakarta Post during an interview recently.

Most Indonesians assume that the country has moved on from authoritarianism following the downfall of the New Order government in 1998.

The fact that the country had managed to hold direct legislative and presidential elections -- the latter being the first in Indonesia's history -- strengthened the premise.

But Smita warned Indonesians not to be blinded by this assumption.

Some 80 percent of countries that are in transition from authoritarianism to democracy failed to adopt genuine democracy and instead reverted to authoritarianism, she argued.

"Look at Thailand. I very much worry that Indonesia will take a step back into authoritarianism," said the former lecturer, who was born in London in 1961.

One indication is the government and House of Representatives' decision -- enshrined in Law No. 32/2004 on regional administrations -- to mandate the Department of Home Affairs to handle direct regional elections, Smita said.

"No democratic countries ever allow their governments to hold elections. They strongly ban government and political party involvement in elections. Authoritarianism may return through undemocratic regional elections," said Smita, who has the full support of her husband and teenage son.

Unfortunately, Smita and a number of other parties' attempts to challenge the law in the Constitutional Court met with disappointment as it refused to annul articles involving these issues.

"Only three judges understood our arguments. The others do not understand that there must be a consistent standard for elections, be they legislative, presidential or regional. A democratic election must be conducted by an independent institution," she said.

The failure, however, did not deter Smita from going ahead with her mission for total reform of the country's election system.

"We'll try to ask the House to amend the law. Actually, we sought one law on elections, so there would not be separate legislation for different types of election.

"It's important for consistency, which plays a major part in the quality of elections," she said.

Therefore, Smita decided to resign as director of the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) and instead chose to be a senior researcher for the institution.

She has started to carry out comprehensive research into the impact of the law on direct regional elections in several conflict-prone areas such as East Java and Central Java.

"I have not focused on Poso, Aceh or Papua for my research because the conflict there was generated by external causes. I want to seek proof that bad legislation for regional elections will play a major part in election-related conflicts," Smita said.

The proof was necessary to convince legislators to amend the election-related law, she said. Smita is confident that such evidence would be able to convince legislators.

"We, activists, must be the active partners of legislators. They need correct information on which to produce legislation. I often follow them from one hotel to another when they are drafting a law. They must know that we are watching them," said Smita, who enjoys debating with legislators.

Born of a well-off family -- her father is former education minister Nugroho Notosusanto -- Smita's involvement with the movement for reform of the electoral system started with her activities as a women's activist.

"I long for an election system that is easy for female voters," said Smita, who was inspired to become a women's activist following her work for a female U.S. Congress member in 1991.

To date, Smita, who calls herself a feminist, is still involved with the drafting of a series of laws to protect women.

Despite her activities in election system reform and women's issues, Smita is a founder of acehkita.com, an online website focusing on news about Aceh. Acehkita is now available in magazine format.

"There is no democracy in Aceh. You cannot get information as freely as here in Jakarta. I am not confident for the results of the elections there," she said, adding that her interest in Aceh arose following the government's decision to impose martial law in the province, followed by the state of civil emergency.

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has been fighting for independence for over 30 years, has branded Acehkita as being pro-TNI, while the TNI has accused it of siding with GAM.

"We don't care. It's an inevitable consequence if you want to uphold democracy," said Smita, who considered it another indication that could return Indonesia to authoritarianism.

She also saw the recent TNI decision to set up regional commands (Kodam) in a number of provinces, including Papua, as an indication that the door to democracy has started to close.

"We must do our best to hold the door ajar. I'll fight any attempt that could damage the establishment of genuine democracy here," she said.