A view reasons to be proud of my nation Kornelius Purba  ;   Senior Managing Editor at The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA POST,  06 Juli 2014

Voters will know on Wednesday evening, based on quick counts, whether their ticket of choice will lead the country. But I dare to bet that no significant violent protests will follow the July 9 presidential election. Of course that is not to say that the die-hard supporters of the losing pair will be disappointed, but they will not waste much of their energy defying the victor of the “fiesta of democracy”. The public will accept the winners no matter how bitter or painful the results of judgment day are for them. It is very boring for me to hear the same old song from the lips of the “highly educated” — both Indonesians and foreigners alike — that the majority of Indonesians are not ready for democracy because they lack education and live in poverty. Wrong! Baseless! We, Indonesians, have proved to the world four times since 1999 that only a tiny fraction of the population is pushing against democracy. They may be small in number but are, of course, very powerful and have little respect for democracy if it runs counter to their ego. This small group of elites, thirsty for self-entitled control, desire a democratic system that will guarantee them the freedom to exploit the public and plunder our natural resources, all to satisfy their endless hunger. They think they are God-appointed envoys, with the “right” to do whatever they like. They think they are the supreme holders of the nation’s sovereignty and the rest should behave as their — often unpaid — servants. To make my position clear, I am from a working class background. My late father was a former elementary school teacher and my mother was just a peasant. Don’t worry, I will not talk about certain presidential candidate here, because legally campaign activities are prohibited from July 6 up to July 9. Indonesia is the third-largest democracy after India and the United States. We were able to win this accolade in less than a decade. We may have the right to elect our leaders but we must acknowledge that local elections are still far from ideal. Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority nation, and as a Catholic, I firmly believe that the most of my Muslim compatriots are moderate and tolerant. Isn’t it an amazing achievement for a nation that was a dictatorship for 53 years? It is true that certain serious problems — corruption, rule of law, clean governance — are yet to be fully routed out. We also still have to follow up on the Constitutional right of freedom of religion in some parts of the country and protection of minorities, there are also threats of terrorism and radicalism. You can add more to the list, and I may agree with you, but you should remember that these problems are purely the problems of my country. Indonesians were only able to exercise full democracy in the legislative election on June 7, 1999: one year after we forced Soeharto to end his 32-year dictatorship on May 21, 1998. From independence, Aug. 17, 1945, until 1998, the country was ruled by two dictators: Sukarno and Soeharto. All elections during their rule were highly fabricated, although some historians argue there was a democratic election in 1955 (the only election under Sukarno). In 1999, international observers like the Carter Foundation and international media organizations like CNN, covered the elections. Many analysts and thinkers from top domestic universities shared the international community concern that riots would erupt after the elections because “Indonesians knew nothing about freedom and democracy”. How wrong they were! After Soeharto’s fall, many academics predicted that Indonesia would fall apart — the balkanization of Indonesia. They eloquently came up with a very convincing scenario that Indonesia was doomed for the same fate of the former Soviet Union country of Yugoslavia. It was true that there were difficulties in Aceh, Maluku, Poso in Sulawesi, and in Papua. But yet, here we are today and the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia still exists. The first ever direct-presidential election was held in Indonesia in 2004. It is a popular voting system. Even many of the much more advanced countries like Japan now are behind us in this regard. In 2009, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won a landslide victory, securing his second term. The retired general was Indonesia’s first directly elected leader. Both the 2004 and 2009 legislative and presidential elections were peaceful and democratic. In the legislative election this year, voters punished political parties, whose images had been sullied by high-profile corruption cases over the last five years. Indonesia is a great nation thanks to the public’s wholehearted acceptance that we are headed in the right direction toward a fully-fledged democracy. We still have a long road fraught with challenges ahead. ●