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)