. Nog extra toevallig is dat je haar op die plaats tegenkwam.Een jaar of vier geleden heb ik Adep en [...]
Democracy is for the best. Democracy is political top-level sport.
Indonesia , the populous and rapidly developing regional super power with a past of authoritarian rule, is on a daring experimental democratic mission ever since ’98.
So it’s actually on a mission of rendering top-level sport. Which requires serious training and efficient organization. And loads of insight, fitness and sophistication.
The other day I read this factual analysis “Religion and Race still key to Indonesian presidency” by Salim Osman in the Jakarta Post. After balancing arguments pro and contra the article’s final paragraph is: The Constitution does not stipulate the race and religion of the presidential aspirant, but it is unlikely that the Muslim majority will give their votes to a non-Muslim and a non-Javanese in the race for the presidency.
I hope the author is wrong. Because though it’s pretty insignificant if candidates running for political office improperly use religion and ethnicity in their campaigns to discredit their opponents, it’s essentially different and potentially something of devastating political dimensions, if those criteria are decisive in the perception of the electorate.
So if that’s the state of mind in the public domain, if Indonesians actually define themselves primarily by their religion and by their ethnicity rather then by their nationality, my conclusion is that the project of the nation’s founders has failed so far.
So if that’s the state of mind in the public domain, if extra-political motives still pretty much decide crucial political decisions, my conclusion is that Indonesian democracy is still in it’s very early, fragile stages.
Perhaps it’s not surprising. The nation is young.
It’s very annoying though. It could mean that the cement of the state is still dangerously wet. That diversity is dominating unity. That the building is still in real and acute jeopardy of collapsing.
So, young democrats, let’s slam some additional national sophistication in excessive pious and excessive tribal heads. And let’s go on slamming till all of the civil population defines itself primarily as Indonesian.
So,young democrats, let’s slam some additional secular sense in whatever stubborn political head shows. And let’s go on slamming till the electorate got sufficient democratic knowledge to distinguish relevant from non-relevant, the political arena from spiritual arenas.
And let’s slam core democratic ethics in the elected representatives’, mayors’, governors’ and ministers’ professional minds in the process.
The first prime minister of the independent Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, an overwhelmingly Catholic country, was Muslim. There’s now a black man in the White House. Indonesians, I am afraid, are still largely trapped in the parochialisms of suku and agama, often to the detriment of their own country.
@ Mauricio: To keep the process going and to speed it up, a bunch of fresh, vocal, critical, visionary and charismatic liberal spiritual and mundane leaders would be very welcome.
From what country do you propose to import them to Indonesia?
Mauricio: That’s a tough question indeed.Liberal is not the fashion and the at present visionary talents are not in sight. Vaclav Havel has died, Mandela is almost dead and I’m afraid Norway is too small to provide for the rest for the world. Which is bad for full blown democracies, but worse for countries still on their democratic mission. So I guess there is not alternative to homegrown liberal visionaries. If they are absent now, they have to be bred.
The tens of millions well informed Indonesians should a) not leave politics to politicians, b) be the look out for these men and women among themselves, c) lobby to get them in the political machinery and d) monitor their actions and achievements.
Well, all politics is local. And this means that Indonesians themselves need to practice in their private lifes what they wish to see in their country. This applied to all countries, btw. As I’ve said before, but it’s worth repeating: It is folly to think that religious tolerance and harmony will prosper in a place where there is no freedom of religion and freedom from religion. It is folly to think that religious tolerance and harmony will prevail in a place where so often and so widely faith, ritual and scripture trump reason, pragmatism and the law. Text-book example of hoping for X while rewarding Y.
@ Mauricio: Though I’ve got my fits of desperation seeing people at home in Western Europe flocking like sheep behind neo-liberal zealots or xenophobic populists, I refuse to abandon my optimism that the present Zeitgeist will change one day. And I refuse to think the Indonesian cultural ( including religious) state of mind can’t and will not change for the better. It has ( I prefer the Indonesia-with-it’s-public-religious-issues I visited last year to the Indonesia-without-public-religious-issues I visited twenty four years ago) and I’m sure it will.
Well, wishful thinking (or burying of the head in the sand) is should not be the basis of public policy. I cannot accept your (and Delvi’s) assurances that things will change, as if by magic or destiny. “Take it from me” is not a serious option.
@ Mauricio: Evidently you are entitled to your pessimism like I’m to my optimism. You’ve got a lot of facts to support your view. Though I doubt whether my moderate optimism equals naivety. I try to watch with a critical mind both what happens at home and in Indonesia. And can keep interested only by remaining hopeful.
People are often capable of changing the conditions they live in ( optimist view). For that they need to take their future in their hands, i.c. the vanguard should take over (such a vanguard exists. F.i http://islamlib.com/en/). For which they should share the optimism they can reach their goals. Actually that’s possible though not likely in the short run (pessimistic view). The means in our hands to change that is debate, both in our inner circles as in media ( moderate optimism). And in the meantime have some modest expectations ( moderate optimism).
I don’t particularly call myself a pessimist. I am more of a realist, one who does not see Indonesia primarily through Jakarta/Java or though my Jakarta-based family relations.