by SAIFUL MAHDI
For those who were teenagers and adults during the New Order era, the phrase ‘guided democracy’ has a negative connotation. Back then the trainers of the Guidelines for Understanding and Practicing Pancasila (P4) program described ‘guided democracy’ as the road wrongly taken and ‘not in accordance with Pancasila.’
Today Indonesia’s democracy is in fact a guided democracy. While democracy is recognised, near absolute decision-making and ultimate authority rest on one figure or assembly. This system, just like the ‘syuro assembly’ leadership model, the ‘party’s high council,’ and other variants, is basically a ‘pseudo-democratic’ model of democracy – a feudalistic one. For some, this model of democracy is considered suitable for a plural society in a country the size of Indonesia, with Singapore and China held up as the ideals.
This could be the symptom of a nation that has lost its way due to increasingly complex challenges. It might also be the symptom of a leadership that is too lazy to think; of rule by mediocre men or common men, ordinary people who are ‘power hungry.’ As political scientist Yudi Latif wrote:
‘When the admiration for “great statesmen” grows pale due to the decline in the authority of role models, many will instinctively turn their admiration to themselves (self-glorification). Those armed with an influential last name, a face the public recognize, and wealth but with little to no achievement already feel worthy to lead this country….’
Feudal democracy is characterised by the increasing concentration of power in the hands of a few incapable elites. Indonesia needs political leaders who are willing to meditate and, for the sake of their nation, to travel along the difficult path, rather than take shortcuts benefitting only the few.
One of the ‘roads not taken’ in Indonesia is to put science at the centre of policymaking. Various challenges for Indonesian science notwithstanding, here, as in all other nations, it is the path for the common good. Science is the best way to champion diversity, in accordance with the Unity in Diversity (Bhinneka Tunggal Ika) principle. Science provides objective criteria in, for example, the selection of leadership so that we may avoid sectarianism driven by ethnicity, religion, race, and intergroup loyalties (suku agama, ras, antargolongan, SARA). Yet it seems we are abandoning the road of science as well, since guided democracy demands the obedience of all, including its scientists.
From optimism to disappointment
At the start of Joko Widodo’s (hereafter, Jokowi) first term, many Indonesians, including those within the academic community, seemed to have high hopes and optimism. In one of the new government’s memorable moments, then head of Jokowi’s presidential staff Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, invited a number of Harvard University alumni to help him. Although it was criticised by many as an excessive glorification of overseas alumni from prestigious universities, it sent a positive message. Panjaitan signalled, at least, that the government was in favor of science. The lexicon of ‘evidence/data-based policy’ seemed to be gaining ground in the country.
Jokowi’s second term did not begin with the same optimism. The president came through an election that deeply divided the nation. Identity politics mushroomed. Populism was the go-to reasoning. Whilst at the beginning of his first term Indonesians were presented with a group of prominent scholars from esteemed universities, by contrast Jokowi’s second term began with speculation about his new ‘millennial’ special staffers – who were mostly young entrepreneurs.
Indonesian analysts and experts began to use the terms ‘illiberal democracy,’ ‘illiberal turn,’ and ‘democratic regression.’ They argued that evidence that Indonesia was a ‘regressing democracy’ was starting to pile up, beginning with the weakening of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Despite protests from university students, legal experts and civil society proponents, in 2019 the KPK bill was made law, largely stripping the body of its autonomy. In the same period, under the pretext of attracting investment, the government together with the parliament drafted the Job Creation Law (RUU Cipta Kerja) as an omnibus law in 2020. Even though it was thrown out by the Constitutional Court as unlawful, in early 2023 the omnibus law was passed under an emergency provision. Guided democracy has ‘subdued’ opposing politicians and businessmen alike, to the point where there is almost no opposition left. Nonetheless, a quiet call for criticism and protest from the academic community perseveres.
A shrinking space for protest
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