Democracy, to my opinion, may be defined as political system which provides regular constitutional opportunities for changing the governing officials, together with the arrangement that permits the largest possible part of the population to have an effect on important decisions by choosing among rivals for political office.

Democracy becomes disorganized if a political system does not posses a set of values allowing fair and peaceful competition for power. Furthermore, if the outcome of political activity does not lead to the granting of effective authority at established intervals to an alternate group, unstable and irresponsible government will be the result. In this conditions, the authority of the officials will steadily increase and the influence of the people on policy will be diminished since the conditions for a continuing effective opposition are absent.

I think what happens in Indonesia is that the governing elites abandons their relevancy in being sensitive to the changing demands of their society, that is the demands for an effective control by the people toward good governance through the mechanism of open democracy. After 30 years of developmental process and now Indonesia is making a way to gain higher economic achievements, I think the condition is already conducive for freer, more open democratic institutions and the blossoming of civil society. A controlled politics is no longer adequate to answer the ever increasing problems in the social and economic life of modern Indonesian society. Neither the authoritarian way which based its argument on the idea that its methode of governance accords with Indonesian tradition and promises political stability to guarantee the economic development.

© Updated April 11, 1997