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Letter: The US and civil society in RI

The US is the mother of modern democracy

The Jakarta Post
Thu, March 11, 2010 Published on Mar. 11, 2010 Published on 2010-03-11T11:38:34+07:00

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Letter: The US and civil society in RI

T

he US is the mother of modern democracy. Since its independence in1776, the democracy of the US has been challenged many times by variouspowerful internal narrow interests, who have tried to influence thegovernment for their own narrow interests.

The US civil society emerged during that time, and has been strengthened in spite of all these non-democratic attacks, but still it has to continually struggle with lobbying from narrow-interest groups.

The youngest democratic society of Indonesia can study a lot from the rich experience of civil society in the US. The US can contribute a lot toward the strengthening of Indonesian democracy by sharing its experiences in this area, with local policy makers, and by empowering Indonesian civil society NGOs and initiatives.

The US administration can help the young democracy of Indonesia by sharing its rich experience in areas such as:

•How to protect the democracy from internal non-democratic powers,
•How to promote a society that adheres to the rule of law,
•How to improve public services that serve society faithfully, and
•How to enforce accountability in powerful institutions and figures.

If the US wants to strengthen the Indonesian democratic civil society, it should not strengthen elements in Indonesian society that are responsible for atrocities: These elements that never have regretted or paid for their crimes.

The US under President Obama is going to defy the US law (Leahy Law) which says that the entire Kopassus (Special Army unit) is banned from receiving US military education or training, following allegations of its involvement in a number of atrocities in restive provinces. The law says the ban will only be lifted if the Indonesian government takes adequate legal steps to prosecute implicated officers.

So far, not even one Kopassus ex-general has been fairly sued in Indonesia. By 2009, the military, known by its Indonesian acronym TNI, was told to relinquish its business interests under reform legislation, but defied it.

History shows that collaboration between the US — or any other strong power and armies, or army units in most of the third world — has almost never strengthened democracy, but the opposite. Military officers backed by Western powers have performed numerous anti-democracy coup d’états around the third world, including the 1965 coup d’état.

I hope the rumors are not true — and the reality is that the US has changed its attitude since Obama was elected. I hope the US will stop its custom of weakening civil societies in the third world.

Ronen Skaletzky
Medan

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