The recent deadly protest of the supporters of the establishment of a Tapanuli Province at the provincial legislative council claimed the life of council speaker Abdul Aziz.
We are very proud to see democracy is blooming since the fall of Soeharto in May 1998.
But we also have to realize that violence is rising in this country. With legislative and presidential elections only a matter of a few months ahead, we should ask ourselves: Is our nation ready for democracy?
Is this democracy we live in now the one we actually want? Is this the democracy we desire? Is this the real democracy we wish to preserve? Perhaps most of us will answer: No! The democracy I learned about at my university, or heard and saw on TV is not like this. But people, who think they fully understand this ideology, say this is the sacrifice we have to pay. But is that true?
For more than 10 years we have lived like this, and maybe more than 10,000 people were killed for this. Is this the democracy that we wished for?
In the process of achieving full-fledged democracy, we always remind ourselves of the importance of freedom of expression. The stakeholders of this country said that “We are free to have our own ideas!”, “We are free to be different!”, “We are free to protest!” and “We are free to criticize”.
But, do we really know anything about a real sense of freedom? Do we fully understand how to protest and criticize within the ethics of a democracy? People in this country are too obsessed with being democrats. People in this country are too mesmerized by having total freedom in their lives.
Democracy is shouted everywhere by university students, laborers, political activists or even schoolchildren. They demonstrate their opinions, their claims, and they protest to the government. By demonstrating our thoughts, feelings and opinion to the public (and particularly to the government), it will synchronize the process of democratic development itself. The process of democracy needs the active participation of the public. And it is happening here.
But in reality, what we see in the media shows us that the way they express these thoughts is like a form of anarchism. People, who pride themselves on being university students, often damage public facilities, punch police officers, or even burn public facilities, and causes traffic jams at their demonstrations.
So, is this really the democracy we want? Who thinks so? The death of Aziz indicates that we are following the wrong democratic path. Democracy is an alibi for people who take no responsibility for their actions. Their actions are unplanned and uncontrolled. Is this the democracy we fight for?
These realities make us think hard about who is going to take responsibility and educate people and teach them about the ethics of democracy itself. Besides the government, the education system should play an important role in raising people’s awareness of real democracy.
Our young generation has to understand the ethics of democracy. Freedom as the vital element of democracy has to be characterized as both loosely and tightly bound together. Loosely may be defined in the sense that people are given the freedom of expression in thought, opinion and action.
And tightly may be defined as the freedom that should be respected by people who exercise that freedom. So the freedom we have must abide by the law and respect others’ interests.
The writer is a student of International Relations at Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung.
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