Democracy

Economy

Education

Development

Global Issues

Research

“Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians”. Chester Bowles

Acknowledgment: Thanks for Paige whose inputs made this writing looks as what it is now. 

"Indonesia was dominated for hundreds of years and has succeeded in gaining independence. Yet, the independence is only in the form of paper as we are now faced with another form of domination - economically, financially and politically". 

As a solution, he suggested that the nation should awaken its spirit of unity and reclaim its dignity.

While his statements are true and deserved applause, the question now is HOW?

How do we start it?

Unity. Can we expect a spirit of unity from today's immature and self-centered politicians?

Dignity. Can we expect dignity from immoral politicians and unethical business people?

Can we also expect unity to be inspired by and dignity to come from a weak national leadership?

So far, Kwik's solution is more rhetoric than substance. The real problem in Indonesia today, in addition to an ineffective leadership, is there is only a very tiny fraction of the current politicians who have a long horizon beyond the 2004 election.  Most of them are focused on the next election. Maneuvers and counter-maneuvers are already in motion, even at the cost of creating confusion in the nation. Already the number one and number two in the nation differ greatly on several issues, including on domestic security. Political parties are trying to convert critical issues that the nation is facing for their own benefit. The Central Axis (Poros Tengah) already initiated maneuvers which would tend to divide the nation into two camps, nationalist versus religious groups.

All movements are nothing but division. No wonder, all these maneuvers, which tend to undermine the spirit of unity, only show the lack of credibility of civilian leaders. This automatically elevates the military position again to the top. Who benefits? It’s not easy to answer. The easier question is, “who are the victims?” Obviously, neither the current politicians, nor the military, but it is the people, now and in future generations, who are the victims.

Problems with politicians

If there is anything that most people can agree with, it must be that politicians are generally corrupt-minded people. George Wallace is not wrong to utter, “I've seen many politicians paralyzed in the legs as myself, but I've seen more of them who were paralyzed in the head”. 

Nikita Khrushchev once said, “Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.” And the great French leader, Charles De Gaulle, once remarked, “Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word”.  Try to bring a small problem to politicians and see how they will make it become a huge and unsolvable problem. Although politicians are frequently associated with being deceitful people, their backgrounds and political bases are two main factors that can determine who they are when they are dealing with national challenges.

Based on their backgrounds and political bases, the current politicians in the country can be categorized into several groups. One group of them got into politics during the New Order Regime (NOR). They blended with the regime before and now think and act just like the way the regime did. Just like the famous promise of the regime, “applying Pancasila purely and consistently” while at the same time piling up national resources for their own benefit, this group has one obvious characteristic: that is saying one thing and doing something else. Another characteristic is never to resign no matter how bad your reputation and conduct are. Just sit there and pretend as if nothing bad happened. Few will deny that most politicians at Golkar fall into this category. In addition, there are some politicians from this type who join other groups and pretend to be the people’s defenders.

Another group is the politicians who got upset because they were marginalized during the NOR. Never did they have clear vision and mission to the nation as a whole.  These politicians turn the spirit of reform into their group’s agenda. Pragmatism and opportunism are two obvious characteristics of this group.

There is another group of politicians who have their base on religion.  While politics is living in the gray areas, these politicians have difficulties in formulating their political aspiration and messages which are acceptable to the nation as a whole. As a result, it’s less likely to expect a national resolution initiated by this group in regards to main challenges that storm the nation.  

The last group is the retired generals who have entered the political arena. Guess what? Politics becomes more like a military-style operation, not a persuasive and parliamentary dialog. Mao Tse-Tung was perhaps right when he said, “Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed”, but reality shows that many retired-general politicians in developing and underdeveloped countries apparently forgot that politics, as what R.A. Butler said, is the art of the possible. We have yet to see our retired generals who turn into politics to really implement the art of possible in a parliamentary and persuasive way. 

In short, very few of these politicians were really trained to think of complicated problems strategically and come up with unified solutions that can tie the nation together. Not all of them have good education and experience. It is likely that there are among them those who use fake university degrees.

When the nation has such leaders and politicians, it is not surprising that it cannot deal with crucial challenges that determine its future.

Three Crucial Issues

One may be able to exhaustedly list all problems that Indonesia is facing. However, ultimately one can boil them down into three most crucial challenges. They are corruption, national identity and economic development.

There have been numerous seminars, workshops, discussions and writings on the bad consequences of corruption. Corruption not only destroys our economy, but also dangerously impedes our human capital formation, the capital crucially needed for an economy to develop.

However, just like leadership where theory and concept matter less than reality and action, eradication of corruption requires real and bold actions. Unfortunately, politicians are just as bad in that area. No wonder Georges Pompidou said, “A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service”. 

It’s more than a shame to a nation that the President and House speaker have been accused of corruption almost at the same time and apparently able to get away with it. During the last 30 years, the amount of corrupted resources in the country is just too huge to be calculated. I estimated that its total is more than US$50 billion, while for US$4 billion, the nation has been forced to hand over its sovereignty to the IMF.

How will the nation deal with this catastrophic practice? Unfortunately, in dealing with this issue, the future of the nation almost entirely depends upon the initiatives and commitment of its leaders and politicians.  For the 190 million lay people and future generations, their challenge to the national leaders and politicians is to do urgent, bold and real actions on this matter. Seizing back 10% of the total corrupted resources, which is more than the price of our sovereignty we are trying to bid to the IMF, has to be an imperative agenda. Legal matters and punishment can proceed later on. The more important agenda is to rescue national assets and minimize the practices in the future.

Four years after the New Order regime collapsed, the nation suddenly lost its guiding principle, Pancasila. During the Old Order Regime, Pancasila had been twisted and during the NOR, it has been manipulated. And now, it has been forgotten. After more than fifty years of its independence, Indonesia is still struggling to define its guiding principle, its ideology. That raises a question, how will the national leaders and politicians deal with this? 

Given the heterogeneity of the nation, not only in terms of ethnic groups, religion but also races, finding and formulating again a new guiding principle will only bring the nation back into the past. We now find ourselves depend upon the quality of our national leaders and politicians. Weak national leaders and self-centered politicians will bring the nation into chaos, as Kwik asserted. 

Therefore, the challenge to the current politicians and national leaders is to restore the national confidence in our ideology. Revitalize Pancasila and make it an inspiring fundamental ideology for uniting the nation, realizing prosperity to all and enhancing democracy. Brainless people always put the blame to the floor when they dance badly. Pancasila is a wonderful ideology but many people blame it as the source of all problems where in fact it has never been truly implemented.

When the two crucial matters above have been taken care of, economic recovery will just follow relatively smooth. Thailand, Korea and Malaysia were hit by the financial crisis almost at the same time as Indonesia. However, they recovered faster than Indonesia. While it is true that Indonesia has worse economic fundamentals and is experiencing multiple problems from politics to domestic security, the more significant matter is likely due to the quality of the country’s leaders and politicians.  One nation may be paralyzed economically, politically and socially. As long as the nation’s leaders and politicians show dignity, preserve moral conducts in their jobs and keep their commitment to the future of the nation, the recovery of the nation is just a matter of time.

By contrast, Indonesia is lacks just those things. We have seen politicians and the government officials point fingers to one another on various critical issues including on IBRA (Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency). Its chairman has been replaced as often as one changes clothes. Only a fool would believe that it is purely due to management capabilities. There is just too much politics involved in economic recovery and self-centered as well as less knowledgeable politicians only make matters worse. The government itself is run by politicians. Chester Bowles once said, “Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians”. No wonder, after five years of the crisis, we have not even had a clear guidance for economic recovery, something that Malaysia already has after one year of the crisis.

5 years or more ahead

No chronic disease can be cured instantly. But by persistence and the proper treatment, it can certainly be cured. During the last 35 years, we have experience serious and chronic diseases. But as an optimistic individual, I confidently believe that Indonesia still has a rosy future. It is endowed with amazing resources. However, there is one strict condition that is its politicians and leaders have to put their mindset beyond the 2004 election and focus their energy on realizing prosperity to all people in the nation.

 Your comment

Link: Should we believe in the World Bank and the IMF?

Back to top