Toward more open society
Toward more open society
The prominent poet, Rendra, recently dismissed a widely held belief that democracy has no traditional roots in our society as an irrelevant question.
Such a belief implies that democracy does not have fertile ground to grow in this country and gives rise to an attitude which endorses shrugging off responsibility for undemocratic behavior by branding the cries for democracy as western influenced or not in line with Indonesia's values.
During a cultural meeting last month in the Central Java town of Mendut, talk at times touched on the question that perhaps this nation has difficulties absorbing new values, including democracy due to its tendency to glorify the past.
Rendra attributed these difficulties to our obsession with achieving high social status instead of cultural advancement. For instance, members of political parties are more likely to busy themselves with matters that could put them in high level bureaucratic positions rather than improving the quality of life of the people.
As early as 1960, Mohammad Hatta, our founding father, wrote in his book Demokrasi Kita (Our Democracy), that democracy does have its roots in the nation.
However, democracy which has become an international catchword, has found its "mechanical" implementation in a number of countries, for instance, in Latin America. This is lamentable, as in this form of practice, democracy becomes a tyranny of the majority over the minority.
Our situation is not as bad as that in those countries. The very existence of public debate on a number of issues, such as the Liquisa incident, the recalling of members of the legislature, and the case of the controversial psychic, Permadi, is a proof of that.
Nevertheless, fear over whether or not our democracy can also become "mechanical" should drive us all to be really sincere in our efforts to create an open society. Rendra likens it to a struggle in the field of culture. The goals of which are to be more ready to agree to disagree and to be more open to criticism, changes and progress.
-- Kompas, Jakarta