Tip of the iceberg?

Young grassroots supporters, including party guards, of the country's two most influential political parties -- the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-Perjuangan) and the Golkar Party -- clashed recently in the regency of Buleleng, Bali, leaving two persons dead.

The irony was that they came there for the same purpose; to commemorate the lofty ideals of Youth Pledge Day, Oct. 28. Nobody was supposed to start the election campaign so early but apparently they could not control their political emotions. No campaign slogans and no party banners were permitted but they broke their promises when they saw how enthusiastic were their opponents in their show-of-force parade.

The young party supporters went for each other simply because mentally they are ill-prepared for democracy. And the blame must be laid primarily on the shoulders of the political leaderships in their respective headquarters. The Buleleng affair is a good example of political negligence in democratic education on the part of party leaderships.

There are now grounds to fear that the accidental encounter of the two groups of party supporters in Bali was just the tip of the iceberg.

The next "festival of democracy", as some people like to refer to general elections in our country, may turn out not to be an exercise in democracy but rather another "experiment" in democracy.

The huge budget and the big fanfare, the setting up of election committees and watchdogs, are not likely to drive off the dark clouds chasing each other across the sky.

Already the beating drums are clearly being heard, and more than fifty party symbols will shortly produce even more confusion in the minds of the electorate, who are still waiting for an improvement in their basic rights and welfare.

GANDHI SUKARDI Jakarta