Unity stays firm despite feudalism, monopoly threats

JAKARTA (JP): A recent survey has found that Indonesia has become more unified over the past 30 years but that stability is threatened by business monopolies and feudalism.

Feudalism has worsened over the last three decades and foreign cultures, the report indicates, are seen as a major threat to local cultures.

"Respondents felt that political, economic and cultural integration is now stronger than it was 30 years ago," said sociologist Iwan Gardono Sujatmiko yesterday.

Iwan is the coordinator of the study, which was conducted under Labsosio, an institute under the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Indonesia.

The survey gathered data from 347 respondents in 12 cities. They were asked to compare national integration during the 1945 to 1965 period to the 1966-1995 period.

Among the respondents were managers, politicians, professionals, bureaucrats, entrepreneurs and veterans. Nearly 68 percent were university graduates and 60.8 percent were over 50 years old.

Respondents were also asked questions about political, economic and cultural integration, the supportive and threatening factors to each type of integration and integration in general.

In response to questions on cultural integration, 44.7 percent of the respondents said that society is more feudalistic now than it was during the 1945-1966 period.

"We asked this closed question in regard to how respondents perceive relations between those who are in power and those who are governed," said a member of the survey team, Tamrin Amal Tomogola.

"This may be due to the fact that the core elite group before and after the period of the New Order is the same. They are of the Javanese privileged group, the priyayi," said Tamrin.

Regarding threats to integration, the team concluded that business monopolies are the most potential.

Forty-two percent mentioned monopoly in the private sector, 13 percent mentioned "conglomerates" and 24 percent said the economic gap between classes threatens economic integration.

Although respondents said citizens would be more tolerant of different ethnic groups and religions in the future, primordialism was cited by 29 percent of the respondents as a current threat to integration in general. This was followed by the economic gap (22 percent) and unfair governance (15 percent).

"Conflicts are mostly not open, but respondents cited real life experience in relation to primordialism," Tamrin said.

He said respondents mentioned the favoritism of certain ethnic groups in job recruitment, citing the Sundanese and the Batak people in a number of government offices in Jakarta, and local resentment of transmigrants in Lampung, South Sumatra.

Iwan said primordialism, or favoritism based on ethnicity, could be more of a threat if certain minorities are given unfair access to economic resources, which is the perception of Indonesia's ethnic-Chinese population.

Half of the respondents mentioned "foreign cultures" as a threat to cultural integration, which Tamrin said reflects a concern for the continuity of cultural identities.

Asked what factors support cultural integration, 34 percent mentioned "appreciation of local culture," followed by nationalism and Indonesian as the single official language.

"Some respondents expressed the need for more regard for local cultures and a rejection of the tendency to conform to Javanese culture," said Paulus Wirutomo, the study's project officer.

"Domination of a certain group" was cited by 17 percent of the respondents as a threat to political integration, followed by violations of the state ideology and the constitution and unfair governance.

On the other hand, in response to the factors supporting political integration, 28 percent pointed to political freedom, 23 percent mentioned the state ideology Pancasila, and 18 percent cited a strong military.

Many respondents (33 percent) urged the consistent implementation of Pancasila as a way to overcome the problems of integration.

Residents from Banda Aceh, Surabaya in East Java, Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan, Ujungpandang in South Sulawesi, Ambon in Maluku and Jayapura in Irian Jaya were included in the survey. (anr)