Towards independent organizations

An interesting conclusion emerged at a seminar organized by the Indonesian Democratic Party faction in the House of Representatives Thursday: Political party independence remains an illusion in Indonesia because parties are intentionally kept from becoming independent so that the prevailing hegemony structure can be maintained. The broad outlines of state policy require that social and political organizations be independent. However, the more frequent this assumption is expounded, the more bewildering its message becomes.

Is this the prevailing reality? If so, which are the parties that do not wish to see the political parties become independent, and what interest is served by such a disposition? What about political morality? The answers to those questions are beside the point here. If we are only willing to take a brief look at the history of our social and political organizations, things should be quite obvious. Perhaps it is of greater relevance to look into the question of why our social and political organizations allow themselves to be "sterilized".

In various meetings and national conferences their cadre have shown themselves to be more concerned about fostering their own individual or group interests rather than tending to those of their organization. It is this fact that opens the door to intervention by outsiders. External intervention does not necessarily have to take place in the physical sense of planting people inside the organization, but could occur through the cultivation of neatly packaged interests.

In our political culture not everyone, political parties not excluded, is allowed to speak -- much less to build power. It is this culture which has caused our parties to lose their independence. The reason is that whether or not they are aware of it our parties see themselves as subordinates of the existing power system. This is the source of endless confusion in the Indonesian Democratic Party, a phenomenon that is now beginning to spill over into the Nahdlatul Ulama.

In such a situation all talk about the independence of our social-political organizations is perhaps somewhat naive because it is actually they who are afraid of being independent. Any leader who dares to show his or her independence is immediately obstructed by his or her own people on various pretexts.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta

;JP;HBK; ANPAk..r.. Otherop5-AIDS Campaign of fear JP/4/otherop5 Campaign of fear

Last week, on the eighth annual celebration of World AIDS Day, international communities came together to voice their anger and frustration over AIDS, a disease that has brutally cut short the lives of so many people.

Our notion of the disease has been distorted by the government's early campaigns against AIDS. Instead of stressing compassion and understanding of the nature of the disease, the government turned to scare tactics to influence the public's behavior.

Although there are signs of an improvement, pictures of people with AIDS symptoms are still common in today's campaigns. This approach has helped to stigmatize the disease, and cause individuals infected with AIDS to become ashamed of themselves.

-- The Nation, Bangkok