Save Our Democracy

Legislature election is coming in Indonesia. It is scheduled on April 9, 2009. But its preparation is far from perfect. I wrote an article about obstacles that we face. I guess the most serious one is the problem of list of voters. The list of voters is a mess. There are reports of persons who are listed more than once. The same name or the same identification number are listed many times. There are also persons under seventeen years of age are on the list. There are even dead people on the list. In west Java some members of police and army are on the list. The election commission promised that they will solve the problem by the end of March. But so far there is no guarantee that the election will be able to keep their words, since there are other problems. Distribution of vote ballot is another difficult problem.

Everybody wants the election will run smoothly. But should the problems remain up to April 9, so that the election commission has to postpone the election or the election fail, what will happen ? Most probably there will be three threats to our democracy. The first one is chaos and anarchy. Either the election failure or postponement will create disappointment among voters, legislature candidates and political parties. Their disappoinment may develop into anger and finally anarchy. Disappointed public in a difficult economic situation is like dry grass in a hot temperature. Add a little fire and we can burn it easily. Local elections in North Maluku is a clear example. It is only in a relatively small area. If it happen country wide, who can control angry mob ?

Riot is an extreme case. Let’s say the Indonesian public is not easily provocated. Let’s think positively. The elections run well with imperfect list of voters. Still there is a problem of a decaying democracy. Democracy is not perfect. There are defects due to the wrong practices of democracy. Elements of democracy exist like elections, parliament, political parties, freedom of speech etc etc. But there is no transparency. Elections, parliaments and political parties are only façade of democracy. It is just procedural democracy. The procedure is there but not the substance of democracy. What is it for then ?

The third possibility is chaos that result in the postponement of presidential election. This will be a serious problem if the deadline of presidential terms is over on October 2009. There will be vacuum of power. Chaotic situation and especially vacuum of power may invite intervention from the military. If it happens, then it is the end of democracy. Indonesia will back to authoritarian rule like the days of Suharto. So let’s save our democracy.