Not a Democracy

By Desi Anwar

At this moment the Indonesian public is right to assume that our hard-won democracy is experiencing a huge setback. That Reformasi, fought for by the students and the public who fed them nasi bungkus in 1998 lies in tatters at the feet of oligarchs whose only intent is to concentrate every drop of political power there is upon themselves, at the expense of the voters and the ordinary people on the street whom they are supposed to be representing.

Using democratic tools, these conniving parliamentarians have not only succeeded in stealing democracy right from under the voters’ noses, but are now making sure that the incoming government, the country’s New Hope, is sufficiently debilitated so that it will find it difficult to move forward, but continue to be shackled to the past.

Looking back, however, democracy in Indonesia has only had the illusion of progress. True, the country enjoys much freedom of the Press, a wonderfully noisy freedom of expressions and a thriving civil society, and yet when it comes to implementing policies that strengthen the country as a democracy and actually fulfilling campaign promises that persuaded the people to take part in elections to begin with, very little has been achieved in the last decade.

Over and over again, election had been used as a means by the oligarchs and the political elite as a cynical means to legitimize their power and influence over the direction of the country. Once, this was in the hands of the strong man and dictator Suharto presiding over a rubber stamp parliament. The advent of democracy simply brought a role reversal.

“The answer to the question why the May reformation has still not shown signs of bearing fruit mainly lies with the understanding of the word reformation itself. For the students and the majority of Indonesians who had successfully removed the person considered responsible for the country’s downfall, reformation practically means revolution. That is, a change in leadership followed by a change in the way the country is run and in the way the government conducts itself: in other words, greater participation of the people in determining the fate of the country and a more open and democratic society.

In reality, what actually happened was the reformation was not the revolution that most people thought it to be, but simply a change in leadership and the reshuffling of the same old personnel where some are removed but the majority retained. So that now, instead of having one difficult but strong and decisive leader to deal with, we have a number of weak contenders noisily jostling for power and popularity, with the incumbent president topping the chart in his quest for public appeal and efforts to please everybody but further destroying the economy in the process.”

These are words I wrote back in July 1998.

Fast forward to 2014, very little has changed. Except this time, there isn’t even the pretense of trying to please the people. Democracy ends when oligarchs take the rein and drag democracy in the mud. People’s power only lasts on the day of the election itself, while for the next five years we are spectators to political spectacles that are really not worth the country’s time and money.

Despite being directly elected, the Indonesian president at the end of the day is a lame duck against a belligerent parliament in hunting season. Outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is proof that the people’s mandate is worth very little in the face of selfish lawmakers. Even before he is sworn in, poor Jokowi’s presidential powers are already being plucked one by one. The next five years promise to be a constant war of attrition.

No amount of social media outrage could change anything if lawful decisions depend on the way lawmakers vote. And the way parliament members vote almost always depends on what they and their party will get out of it. Perhaps the only way they will get the message is if we replay our Reformasi and enact our own Umbrella Revolution.

Desi Anwar is a senior anchor at Metro TV. Her article originally appeared 6 October in the Jakarta Globe.