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| Political System: Democratization |
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Against this authoritarian background, the challenge of reforming and rebuilding the Indonesian state is immense, and in the eyes of many some turbulence is inevitable. The transition has been carried out so fast that many new ideas have been scheduled for implementation simultaneously. Some even suspect that this pace may have been a deliberate ploy to guarantee failure, and thereby to generate popular appeal for a return to the authoritarianism of the past.
The socio-cultural tradition has not developed fast enough to keep up with the rate of political change. Many local people have not had a chance to develop an understanding of democracy, with no experience upon which to draw in Indonesian political history. They want “democracy” but appear not to agree on what exactly this means and how it should be implemented. Furthermore, there are no obvious candidates to represent the people’s interests in this transition and the people in power have not changed significantly.
Democratization will not solve all of Indonesia’s problems and is embraced fervently only by the urban political elite, who constitute a small fraction of the populace. In contrast with elsewhere in the world, Indonesians do not consider democracy the only possible model of government, but rather one form of economic and political arrangements among several choices.
The creation of democratic institutions accountable to the electorate would bring possibly the greatest contribution to the welfare of the Indonesian people, despite the tremendous challenges involved. Important elements of the democratization process are the education of people at the community level on the ideals of democracy and the development of civil society, as discussed below.
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