'Strong regime needed to promote stability'

'Strong regime needed to promote stability'

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Former president Soeharto had taught an expensive lesson on
how to run a strong government, something that Indonesia was now
desperately is seeking, and also how an absence of democracy
could be the end result, experts said on Monday.

Indonesianist Robert Edward Elson told participants during a
ceremony marking the launching of his book at the Centre for
Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) here that, whether we
liked it or not, the way Soeharto governed had offered the
country stability and prosperity.

But he was quick to remind his audience that an effective
means had to be created to prevent autocracy gaining a foothold
in the future as had happened under the 32-year-old New Order
regime in the past.

"What Indonesians need is an effective means for preventing
strong centralization while at the same time not over-
decentralizing power so as to make the state weak and hard to
govern," he said.

Elson, a professor in politics at Griffith University in
Australia, has just completed his latest book titled Suharto: A
Political Biography. The book is published by Cambridge
University Press.

Political observer Mochtar Pabottinggi and former Indonesian
ambassador to Australia Sabam Siagian also spoke at the book
launching.

The post-Soeharto administrations have inherited Indonesia's
worst economic crisis ever, one that remains unabated, and
political euphoria that has fueled separatist movements in some
provinces.

The current government is trying to lure back investment, much
of which has fled the country due to political instability.

Mochtar agreed that a strong regime was needed to bring
stability to the country, but it should not go too far.

He said Soeharto's autocratic style had provided a good lesson
for any regime taking up the reins of power in Indonesia in that
he, as well as his predecessor Sukarno, had tried to establish
presidencies for life.

"This practice is very dangerous for democracy since it only
results in leaders turning into irrational leaders," he said.

"Where there is a presidency for life, political systems
become unable to perform effectively. The tendency is to weaken
political institutions, such as political parties, and this
threatens the existence of democracy."

Elson said that besides creating a strong government, the
government of the day should create a balance between social and
individual needs.

"Indonesians should be able to seek an appropriate balance
between social and individual needs," he said.

In the past, social needs were given greater room than
individual needs and this led to the rights of the individual
being ignored.

"As a result, Indonesia saw rampant human rights abuses during
the New Order era, in which individuals were sacrificed to serve
the needs of the community," he said.

To promote democracy, Elson suggested that Indonesians must
also try to pursue the delicate balance between a strong national
identity and a diversity of beliefs.

"Indonesians should strike a balance between a sense of strong
national identity or strong national purpose, and tolerance in
accepting a diversity of beliefs in the sphere of regionalism,
religious and ethnic differences, and so forth," he said.