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.