Towards independent organizations

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

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Otherop5-AIDS
Campaign of fear
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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