Comments on: CAN SBY HANDLE IT?

By: Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia » ARE INDONESIANS READY FOR DEMOCRACY?

Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia » ARE INDONESIANS READY FOR DEMOCRACY? — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 18:39:24 +0000

[...] come across with unexpected, yet excited idea. One of the comments on the article that I wrote (Can SBY Handle it?) triggered me to write this article. Here is the comment: Indratno Widiarto said on April 10, 2007 [...]

By: Indratno Widiarto

Indratno Widiarto — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 09:24:41 +0000

It seems that we have different point of views in seeing democracy

I couldn’t agree more with your three elements.

Adding my ‘ideas’ as you called it, to those three is, in my opinion, too premature.

Let’s take a look at history:

Singapore: Do you think it was built upon democracy?
Unites States Of America: Do you think it was built upon democracy? (please look back to the era of slavery for this matter)
UK, Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Spain….

Don’t you think that ‘they’ don’t take advantages of democracy just for their own benefit?

Who was supporting Batista? Shah Reza Pahlevi? Marcos? Soeharto? And all other corrupt regimes? That ‘democratic’ country, wasn’t it?

I dream about democracy day and night as you do…but not that fast and not as define by those who only takes benefit of it.

Kindly regards,

Indratno

By: Beni Bevly

Beni Bevly — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 19:07:40 +0000

Indratno,
Thank you for your intelligent comments. There are three elements that I did not address in this article. First, a lot of Indonesian leaders are “afraid” to be considered that they are not Islam enough. Second, paternalistic characteristic is so strong in Indonesia culture. Third, a lot of leaders who take the advantages of democracy, especially decentralization system.

These three, combined with Indratno’s ideas, become the main barriers for Indonesia to implement democracy successfully.

By: Indratno Widiarto

Indratno Widiarto — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 07:35:10 +0000

I don’t think that we need a transformational leader to lead people to prosperity and tackle all the obstacles alongside.

We need a strong leader who will not worry much of being accused of undemocratic, of violating human rights, of not pleasing united states of not following the constitution. As long as it is for the sake of his own people, he will do whatever needed to do.

The Indonesians are simply not ready yet for living the life of ‘democratic’ dreams and ideals.