Sociologist optimistic on national tragedies
Sociologist optimistic on national tragedies
JAKARTA (JP): The rise and fall of Megawati Soekarnoputri, the
press bans, the national car policy debate and dozens of other
political events in Indonesia in recent years bode well for the
growth of democracy, sociologist Arief Budiman said yesterday.
While some of these events may have been tragic, the Harvard-
trained scholar said that overall they represented "investments"
for the nation as it strove for democracy.
"I see them as some kind of investment for a corporation
called democracy, from which someday the nation could enjoy,"
Arief said in a farewell speech before he heads to Australia to
teach at a Melbourne university.
These political events led to the establishment of various
alternative groups that would "synergize" to work toward a more
democratic society, he said.
His address followed a ceremony to launch three books by the
Institute for Studies on Free Flow of Information and the Tempo
Alumni Foundation: Peristiwa 27 Juli (The July 27 Incident),
Seandainya Saya Wartawan Tempo (If I was a Tempo Journalist) and
Ilusi Sebuah Kekuasaan (Illusion of Power).
Senior journalists, lawyers and scholars attended the speech
including Goenawan Mohamad, Fikri Djufri, Adnan Buyung Nasution
and Father Mudji Sutrisno.
Arief singled out the Indonesian Democratic Union Party (PUDI)
and the Democratic People's Party (PRD) as two new alternative
groups that broke the barriers that led to more people being more
articulate and courageous in challenging the current political
system.
Neither party is recognized by the government and is not
permitted to take part in the May general election.
PUDI is headed by Sri-Bintang Pamungkas, a former legislator
who is facing a jail term for insulting President Soeharto. PRD's
leaders, including its chairman Budiman Sudjatmiko, are now on
trial for subversion.
Arief said that democracy was bound to come to Indonesia, just
as it had in many other parts of the world.
He believes that history will follow the Hegelian philosophy
that describes "democracy as something necessary for human kind".
Arief, quoting American social scientist Samuel Huntington,
said there were four paths by which a country could become
democratic: transformation, replacement, transplacement and
international intervention.
Indonesia is likely to take the transplacement path, he said.
His belief was founded by the election of Megawati to the
leadership of the Indonesian Democratic Party in 1993 by
"political undercurrents" in spite of strong opposition from the
authorities.
Arief was fired from the Christian Satya Wacana University in
Salatiga, Central Java, in 1995 at the peak of a dispute with
college administrators over the election of a rector. (08)