Awakened times
This was a week where the hope brought about by the expectation of democracy and reformasi became glaringly disparate to the realities of life on the ground.
As the nation commemorated National Awakening Day, it was reminded of the stagnation felt by objects in the political process and how little progress had been attained in the continuous pursuit of justice.
On Thursday religious and community figures gathered of their own volition to issue a statement warning the nation of being on the verge of “bankruptcy”.
They lamented the dearth of leadership needed to salvage this nation out of the doldrums of procedural democracy, leading to what they described as kebangkrutan nasional (national bankruptcy).
“Indonesia is facing serious problems with unresolved corruption, money politics, poverty, human rights violations and violence against minority groups. We need a brave leader who is committed to saving this country from national bankruptcy,” interfaith religious leaders said in a joint statement marking National Awakening Day, which is commemorated every May 20.
Prominent Islamic scholar Ahmad Syafii Maarif said the message was addressed to those who still have consciences and the ability to look and listen. “Let’s use our consciences, eyes and ears and resolve these problems. We have to rise together,” he said.
The statement by interfaith leaders was released on the heels of a survey suggesting that former president Soeharto is more popular than any other Indonesian president, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The survey, conducted by Indo Barometer, also found that only 29.7 percent of 1,200 respondents were satisfied with the Yudhoyono administration and 40 percent thought the New Order was better than the reform administrations.
Indonesian Bishops Conference chair D. Martinus Situmorang said that the threat of bankruptcy was an accumulative degradation of various factors — morality, solidarity, law enforcement and trust — which could have been avoided.
Much of the anger has been vented at Yudhoyono — not because he has done something wrong, but because he seems to have done very little at all.
“Yudhoyono was elected in a landslide victory, but he does not have the courage to take action for the nation’s advancement,” Hendardi of Setara told The Jakarta Post.
One of the unresolved vestiges of the past which the current administration seems to have lost interest in is the May 1998 riots.
In an effort to jog historical memory, the National Commission for Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) took teachers from a high school in Jakarta to the sites of several notorious human rights violations committed during the riots 13 years ago.
One teacher, Listianto, said that the textbook histories of the riots provided only a brief summary of what took place, without mentioning the victims nor the rights abuses that occurred.
Another point of continuing frustration has been the stagnant fight against corruption, marked more by strong words and empty pledges rather than clear measures for eradication.
President Yudhoyono issued yet another instruction comprising action plans to mitigate and eradicate corruption by ordering relevant institutions — especially the National Police, the Attorney General’s Office, the Law and Human Rights Ministry, the Finance Ministry, and the presidential Judicial Mafia Taskforce — to speed up investigations into corruption and intensify measures to prevent corrupt practices.
This is the third presidential instruction on corruption issued by the President this year, part of a long series of regulations, instructions and decrees he has issued since first coming to power in 2004.
The latest instruction contains 102 action plan points addressing six areas: prevention, enforcement, harmonizing law and regulation, recovery of assets from acts of corruption, international cooperation and coordination mechanisms.
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) coordinator Danang Widoyoko said the 2005 National Action Plans on Corruption Eradication failed to curb corruption and warned the government not to repeat such failures.
“[New regulations] contain more or less similar content as older ones that lacked a strong and clear enforcement and monitoring mechanism,” he said.
The frustration is even more understandable when people hear that the privileges of power can be used to commercialize its citizens.
News emerged that the government plans to sell the citizen database enclosed in the electronic identification cards (e-KTP) system for business interests.
Home Ministry spokesman Reydonnyzar Moenek told
The Jakarta Post on Monday that the data could be used for business interests, but contended only to see the distribution of certain characteristics of the Indonesian population.
“We won’t disclose private information,” he said, adding that the government would charge those who were interested in using the data.
The Home Ministry intended to create a database tracking 27 different articles of personal information, including addresses, family members, birth dates, employment and education. The project requires Rp 5.9 trillion (US$690 million).
Indonesian human rights monitor Imparsial quickly criticized the government’s plan to sell citizens’ electronic identity data for business interests.
As the nation commemorated National Awakening Day, it was reminded of the stagnation felt by objects in the political process and how little progress had been attained in the continuous pursuit of justice.
On Thursday religious and community figures gathered of their own volition to issue a statement warning the nation of being on the verge of “bankruptcy”.
They lamented the dearth of leadership needed to salvage this nation out of the doldrums of procedural democracy, leading to what they described as kebangkrutan nasional (national bankruptcy).
“Indonesia is facing serious problems with unresolved corruption, money politics, poverty, human rights violations and violence against minority groups. We need a brave leader who is committed to saving this country from national bankruptcy,” interfaith religious leaders said in a joint statement marking National Awakening Day, which is commemorated every May 20.
Prominent Islamic scholar Ahmad Syafii Maarif said the message was addressed to those who still have consciences and the ability to look and listen. “Let’s use our consciences, eyes and ears and resolve these problems. We have to rise together,” he said.
The statement by interfaith leaders was released on the heels of a survey suggesting that former president Soeharto is more popular than any other Indonesian president, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The survey, conducted by Indo Barometer, also found that only 29.7 percent of 1,200 respondents were satisfied with the Yudhoyono administration and 40 percent thought the New Order was better than the reform administrations.
Indonesian Bishops Conference chair D. Martinus Situmorang said that the threat of bankruptcy was an accumulative degradation of various factors — morality, solidarity, law enforcement and trust — which could have been avoided.
Much of the anger has been vented at Yudhoyono — not because he has done something wrong, but because he seems to have done very little at all.
“Yudhoyono was elected in a landslide victory, but he does not have the courage to take action for the nation’s advancement,” Hendardi of Setara told The Jakarta Post.
One of the unresolved vestiges of the past which the current administration seems to have lost interest in is the May 1998 riots.
In an effort to jog historical memory, the National Commission for Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) took teachers from a high school in Jakarta to the sites of several notorious human rights violations committed during the riots 13 years ago.
One teacher, Listianto, said that the textbook histories of the riots provided only a brief summary of what took place, without mentioning the victims nor the rights abuses that occurred.
Another point of continuing frustration has been the stagnant fight against corruption, marked more by strong words and empty pledges rather than clear measures for eradication.
President Yudhoyono issued yet another instruction comprising action plans to mitigate and eradicate corruption by ordering relevant institutions — especially the National Police, the Attorney General’s Office, the Law and Human Rights Ministry, the Finance Ministry, and the presidential Judicial Mafia Taskforce — to speed up investigations into corruption and intensify measures to prevent corrupt practices.
This is the third presidential instruction on corruption issued by the President this year, part of a long series of regulations, instructions and decrees he has issued since first coming to power in 2004.
The latest instruction contains 102 action plan points addressing six areas: prevention, enforcement, harmonizing law and regulation, recovery of assets from acts of corruption, international cooperation and coordination mechanisms.
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) coordinator Danang Widoyoko said the 2005 National Action Plans on Corruption Eradication failed to curb corruption and warned the government not to repeat such failures.
“[New regulations] contain more or less similar content as older ones that lacked a strong and clear enforcement and monitoring mechanism,” he said.
The frustration is even more understandable when people hear that the privileges of power can be used to commercialize its citizens.
News emerged that the government plans to sell the citizen database enclosed in the electronic identification cards (e-KTP) system for business interests.
Home Ministry spokesman Reydonnyzar Moenek told
The Jakarta Post on Monday that the data could be used for business interests, but contended only to see the distribution of certain characteristics of the Indonesian population.
“We won’t disclose private information,” he said, adding that the government would charge those who were interested in using the data.
The Home Ministry intended to create a database tracking 27 different articles of personal information, including addresses, family members, birth dates, employment and education. The project requires Rp 5.9 trillion (US$690 million).
Indonesian human rights monitor Imparsial quickly criticized the government’s plan to sell citizens’ electronic identity data for business interests.
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