Just my two cents.
What has democracy done for us?
Indonesia has won kudos from leaders and political pundits in the West for its success story in upholding democracy. It is now, according to US-based NGO Freedom House, the only “free” country in Southeast Asia. Not all Indonesians are aware, let alone proud, of this achievement. Uh-oh, is it really an achievement? Well, a senior diplomat in Singapore said that a decade ago political analysts familiar with Indonesian politics thought the nation would need a miracle to maintain its integrity after the political turmoil that led to the ousting of the Javanese King Soeharto in 1998. They must be surprised to know that not only has Indonesia been able to remain united (we lost East Timor, but it’s alright); it has also become the world’s third largest democracy!
It is no wonder that The Economist — a respected magazine that will make you feel smarter just by ‘looking at’ the headings of its perfectly written articles — did a write-up about Indonesia, telling the whole world about how Indonesia has now become a beacon of democracy in the region and brought its Southeast Asian neighbors to shame for giving so little space to political dissents. The strong man of Indonesia is dead. The political machine that once controlled the whole nation – the Golkar Party — is now broken and divided. Bloggers’ biggest enemy today is neither the president nor the ruling party, but a hospital that loves to bully its patients for exposing its poor services. The hospital, FYI, is now almost dead. That’s probably because we value democracy so much.
Even Homer looks smart!
Things are different in the neighboring countries; Lee Kuan Yew is still around telling Singaporeans how the city-state is unique and needs to be governed in a way that is also unique; the old man is not dead yet and has even vowed to return from his grave if anything goes wrong with the country. A wind of change is sweeping Malaysia today but UMNO still has the power to arrest and detain people without trial under the infamous Internal Security Act (ISA) — Singapore has this act too.
But what is democracy for? What does it do? Can it provide jobs? Can it repair shoddy infrastructures? The truth is we keep sending people, including illiterate housemaids, to Malaysia, and we are still dreaming of having a decent transit system like the one in Singapore. It’s a fact. We are left behind by our neighbors. Sad. I know. But does it mean democracy has failed us?
Mentality or what?
I think democracy is no panacea for all the problems we are now facing. The reason why we fail, or are extremely slow, to develop has to do with our philosophy of life or mentality. No, I am not going to repeat the cynics that Indonesians have servant mentality or mental babu. NO. WE FOUGHT AGAINST THE DUTCH! WE FOUGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM! There’s no way Indonesians are thinking of themselves as slaves or, God forbid, willing to be enslaved. It just happens that for certain reasons we do not adopt LKY’s progressivism. We live a life as it is presented to us; we never consider ambition as a virtue; we voluntarily let people go ahead; we do not compete or even try to; most of us do not really care if our fellows are better than us; we are easily satisfied; we are just TOO NICE to others, including our competitors; it seems that we see no reasons to go forward when everything is just…fine.
A dull and boring debate – if it was a debate — between presidential candidates we just saw recently shows how our leaders like to agree on everything and do not try to outwit their rivals. See, no competition! And look at our students today; only a few of them say: “I want to be number one”. They are I am sure more than happy just to graduate and avoid the shame of failing. I know too well of this yang-penting-lulus mentality. I did have such mentality when I was in school! So, do you think we need to adopt LKY’s progressivism so that in his own words we can have “more money, better clothes…better girlfriends?”
Bapak LKY
This is by the way the summary of the old man’s philosophy from Din Merican:
“At the root of Lee Kuan Yew’s idea of progress is competition. Competition is necessary to allow us to differentiate. Competition is the only mechanism by which one overtakes another. Planning for progress means, you commit your resources so that you get ahead of the others. It’s always a position relative of others. Progress is not just improvements in material well being in isolation. It is always planning to be ahead of others.”
Can we adopt and put into practice such philosophy? I really doubt we can. We are less arrogant than Malaysians and less ambitious than Singaporeans. Do we then need to discover our own idea of “progressivism”? But do we have one? Soekarno helped midwife Indonesia as an independent state but he was NEVER a man of progress. Sjahrir or Hatta, perhaps? They are now buried in history books we never read. SBY? Kalla? No, no Mega-Pro! Or shall we just formulate it ourselves?
Any idea? We can start by DEFINING progress. 
Progress? Like the stolen nuts, bolts and screws in Suramadu? Empty political promises? Or a bunch of fools flying all the way to Gaza but not to Ambalat?
No, none of the above. Help me out, I’m losing faith too.
But it’s okay, really. It’s better than supreme monarchy. It’s better than North Korea. It could have been worse. At least some of us still care and bother to write about it.
Progress? DSL connection, the tsunami of movement that followed Prita’s imprisonment, the maids and babus who got their kids through college, and then some. Progress started from awareness. And — congratulations — you’re already there.
PS: I love your ironic voice.
Is that the latest edition of The Economist? I want to get one, too.
…
Well hell, it is not, wondering whether they still have the April ed in stock.
@Hning
Haha…stolen screws! You know I don’t ask much from the government. I just want a decent transport system.
I love irony too.
@illuminationis
Which one? The one read by Homer?
There’s a story behind that picture.
true. all of us have this genetical disease called nice-complex syndrome hahaha! think of all the street-beggars. people say that it is because the government neglects them but the other side of the story may be because it IS a good money. Jakartans, for example, regardless how disillusioned they are with the idea of Indonesia (puh lease people the planet does not revolve around Sudirman and Karawaci) they never really close their eyes to beggars. driving fancy cars, donning branded stuffs, they never completely neglect street beggars, sometimes insanely give them a lot of money. feel bitter, painful, ironic to this phenomenon?? yea,yea that’s the part of the syndrome.
if you’re indonesians, you’re either grateful, ignorant, unmotivated. all have one similar trait, too complacent of themselves.
progress. let me think….
a new snack?
Being too nice, hm..
is it because of the culture that melayu possesed? I’ve learned this in my college that melayu race (sprecifically malaysia, but looking at it, we sure also posses one) is holding a very thick culture called “people-oriented” and “avoidance to conflicts”. probably such culture that finally influenced us to be err…lazy, and ignorant and uncompetitive.
Sometimes I really wonder, do we need a dictator leader to control us so that we at least headed into a direction instead of running freely with no clear direction? At least we made a progress
@witri
I guess you’re an exception, dear.
@frea
*cough* pilih-nomer-satu-aja *cough*
“Developed” world tourists invaded natural heavens like Indonesia to get away from the pressures of their own “modern” lives. Yet SOME Indonesians want to live like them in tall buildings with malls and toll roads. Feeling competitive or just too insecure (kurang pe-de)??? It’s silly and childish.
Both, I guess.