Rabu, 14 November 2007

Tribute to the people

It's funny how it always takes outsiders to notice or to even appreciate how much we have changed for the better. This is exactly the case with the Democracy Award given to the people of Indonesia by the International Association of Political Consultants (IAPC) in Bali this week.

Here we are lamenting, almost on a daily basis, the lack of progress that the political reforms have brought, about how slow-paced economic recovery has been, and about how small the economic dividends from democracy are relative to the cost and pain we have gone through.

Some of us are even becoming dejected by the lack of results of nearly 10 years of political reforms that they are having second thoughts whether democracy is really the right course, or whether some sort of iron-hand authoritarian rule, Soeharto-style minus the evils, would be more suitable for a country as large and as complex and diversified as Indonesia.

Some wannabe presidents for the 2009 elections are already seizing on this theme by presenting themselves as the candidate that offers a strong (meaning a little authoritarian) and efficient leadership as an alternative to the current leadership, which constantly needs to consult with other institutions in reaching decisions.

Some of us seem to be wavering in our belief and commitment to democracy.

So, it comes as a pleasant surprise that the IAPC, which is meeting in Bali this week, has decided to award the people of Indonesia with its annual Democracy Award for the role that they have played in the country's relatively peaceful transformation from an authoritarian dictatorship to a democracy.

As IAPC president Ben Goddard stated in presenting the award on Monday that what the Indonesian people have achieved is no small feat by any measure. No other country in the world has made the transformation, and no other country has held a single-day election involving so many people, peacefully. It was even more significant that Indonesia, or the people of Indonesia, the majority of whom are Muslims, should make this kind of transformation at a time when the popular notion in the West remains that democracy and Islam are not compatible.

It is unusual for the IAPC to give the award to an entire nation. Past winners have been individuals or organizations who made a contribution to democracy building in their countries, such as Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar.

So when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono accepted the award at the ceremony in Bali, he was doing so on behalf of the 240 million Indonesians.

Historians writing about this period of Indonesia's modern history will have a hard time pinning any individual or organization with leading the transformation. Of course, we will never have a shortage of people trying to claim credit for bringing down the Soeharto regime, or for making possible the democratic process to take root in this country.

But as President Yudhoyono rightly pointed out in his acceptance speech, one key explanation for Indonesia's success is that democracy has been people-driven from the start. "It's a bottom-up process of change. When the torch of reformasi began in 1998, it was a movement from below, and it quickly hit the public nerve and energized the nation."

Perhaps it was just as well that none of the first three presidents since the collapse of the Soeharto regime -- B.J. Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid and Megawati Soekarnoputri -- lasted long enough to be able to claim sole credit for providing the vision and direction of the political reforms. They each had a role in the short period of their rule, but none was more dominant than the other.

Ditto Yudhoyono. When the President said that Indonesia's democracy was now producing political stability and the highest economic growth since 1998, this would have been impossible without the contribution his three predecessors made in preparing the nation for this long journey.

With this award, the popular expression "democracy for the people, from the people and by the people" cannot be more aptly used to describe what has happened in Indonesia since 1998. It was truly the work of the people. And this Democracy Award is a tribute to them all.

Indonesian culture teaches us to be modest and never to trumpet our own successes, unless you are a politician. But this is one of those exceptions when we should be patting ourselves on the back for making democracy not only possible, but also for making transition as peaceful as possible.

We still have a long way to go in making democracy a solid part of our tradition and culture, but as President Yudhoyono said, we have reached a point of no return. This international recognition should encourage us to be even more resolute in building Indonesia on a democratic foundation.