Tradition and modernity in Indonesian democracy

Tradition and modernity in Indonesian democracy

Kazuo Ogoura, The Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo

"Mother, the people in our village are not trying to follow
the changing times. They are sitting on the ground all day long
like worn-out old men," shouted Hanafi, a Western-educated young
man, while holding back his mother, who did not like to sit on
the sofa in his new home, and was moving instead to squat down on
the floor.

This was in the 1920s. The above passage is quoted from an
Indonesian literary classic, Salah Asuhan (The Unmannered)
(authored by Abdoel Moeis and translated into Japanese by Kenji
Matsuura), which depicts a young man who is very concerned and
agonized about the great cultural conflict between the East and
the West.

The times are changing. Politics and society in Indonesia are
also undergoing a surging wave of change. Changes are not
confined to the reform of systems; in fact, the current trend of
politics itself is showing changes. In September this year, the
country carried out a direct election of president for the first
time in its history without much confusion, and this fact
symbolizes the changing of the times in the country.

These changes are not only meaningful to Indonesia, but also
are of great international significance. Despite recent terrorist
acts in the country, such as the triggering of an explosion in
front of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, Islamic political
parties, by and large, are remaining rather moderate in asserting
their political stance. And there are almost no signs of military
intervention in politics for the sake of internal security. All
these could serve as favorable signals in the trend toward
democracy in Islamic nations in the Middle East and Africa.

The fact that a huge developing country comprised of several
thousand islands carried out unified elections amid the rivalry
of many political parties with no confusion occurring in local
politics, will surely encourage the forces for democracy in China
and other countries with a system of their own that is similar to
a "one-party dictatorship."

The economic difficulties which Indonesia has been suffering
from since the 1997 financial crisis have yet to be overcome, but
it is worth taking note that anti-establishment moves based on
anti-globalism, anti-capitalism, anti-Americanism and the like
have not come to the political fore. (This may have something to
do with the fact that Marxism cannot take root in the country
thanks, in part, to its Islamic tradition, and that there also
are no breeding grounds to foster anti-globalism movements with
an ideological makeup.)

Recent political trends in Indonesia show that charisma, an
advantage in incumbency and or a "halo" such as family lines can
no longer result in a decisive power in the country. Former
president Megawati Soekarnoputri, the incumbent candidate, was
once an "outsider" from the political world; and it is to be
noted that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the newly elected president,
has also, if anything, been outside of traditional political
circles.

Summing up everything examined above, it may not be an
overstatement to say: "Those who won in the election were the
voters," or "democracy itself was the winner."

But, this is where things start getting rough. The charismatic
politics by the president have shifted to pork-barrel politics,
and now, amidst the public disillusionment with elite political
leaders and criticism of endemic corruption, it looks as if
Indonesian politics are being transformed into something that is
concerned more with political distrust and civic movements.

If this is the case, the question will be posed in a more
critical manner as to what will fill the "gap" between a
democratized political mechanism and a society that is
persistently oriented with a traditional sense of value. In the
latest presidential election, the number of those who abstained
from voting, referred to as "golput," is reported to have
exceeded 30 million. This alone may symbolize the significance
and seriousness of the gap.

The aforementioned literary work Salah Asuhan also says, in
part: The mother indeed played a major role in linking the young
man, Hanafi, to the Minangkabau community (a regional group of
people in western Sumatra) and Islamic society.

In order to make true democracy take root firmly in Indonesia,
the role of the "Mother" to combine things traditional and
contemporary is necessary. And the country is in need of
political leaders whose role it is to incorporate the merits of
traditional village communities into politics today, rather than
relying on a democratic form of government influenced by Western
mannerisms. The new president has been referred to by people in
varied ways, sometimes as "Yudhoyono" or "Susilo" or "Bambang."
This fact may indicate that he is able to form a bridge between
traditional customs and the present.

The writer, who served as Japanese ambassador to South Korea
and France, is president of the Japan Foundation. He also is a
professor at Aoyama Gakuin University.