Rizal Malik (tifafoundation dot org)

The TIFA Foundation will celebrate its 17th anniversary on Friday. It is one of many organization that have contributed to strengthening civil society in Indonesia.

The Jakarta Post’s Safrin La Batu recently spoke to Rizal Malik, the foundation’s chairperson of the board, to explore TIFA’s role in the country for the past 17 years.

Question: What made TIFA decide to focus on the issue of democracy?

Answer: We first need to explore the context in which TIFA was established. In 1998, there was reformasi, when we moved from an authoritarian regime to democracy. There was euphoria everywhere at the time. We thought Indonesia would become a democratic country by establishing democratic institutions such as parliament and political parties. In 2000, two years after adopting democracy, the founders of TIFA identified that in order to make democracy sustainable we needed an open society.

The essence of an open society is that there is a public sphere where people can express their thoughts, assemble and practice their religions freely. The founders thought that without an open society democracy in Indonesia would be under threat.

And we can see, in the course of adopting democracy, the things we considered complete during reformasi were in fact not yet finished. We can see actors who were active during the authoritarian regime now return. We also see there is a decline in our democracy index, for example the one shown by Freedom House.

From this, we can understand that promoting an open society is a never-ending task.

Many people say Indonesian democracy has suffered a setback. How will TIFA formulate its works in the future?

Like I said, this is a continuous struggle. We cannot be complacent that, with the establishment of political parties, people’s aspirations will automatically be heard. That is not the case.

In the past, we thought that if we had a strong parliament to balance the authority of the executive our life as a nation will proceed positively. But that is also not the case. We have a strong parliament but the strong parliament also does not represent the people’s aspirations and are corrupt.

So, our job in building a democratic culture within political parties is not complete yet. I think we can start by strengthening civil society because recruitment in the political parties involve members of civil society.

Can you share some success stories TIFA and its clients have achieved so far?

TIFA is actually a “support” organization. Our support is in the form of providing grants and information, which is facilitating capacity building. Two of our biggest clients are the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI). The two organizations have become the pillars in our efforts to strengthen an open society in Indonesia.

Freedom of the press has become an important goal for TIFA since its establishment and we have tried to achieve that by supporting AJI and the Legal Aid Institute for the Press (LBH Pers). For example, facilitating the establishment of a coalition [to support] the freedom of information law.

So far, we think AJI is still an independent organization. And the press in Indonesia is among the freest compared to our neighbors such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. I think this is one of our success stories.

What is the major goal TIFA wants to achieve now?

Today, there is a tendency in most countries that democracy is experiencing a setback. Take a look at Thailand, for example. It was initially an open country but later experienced a coup d’etat and then became closed again. This is the tendency today. Indonesia is also not without risk of returning to authoritarianism.

Therefore, I think TIFA’s job is not yet finished. Indonesia is by nature a diverse nation. We do not want one group dominating the other. We need equality for all our citizens. For this, we need a just legal system.

This is TIFA’s vision: that among the diverse populations there is equality and there is respect for the law. Our vision is to cooperate with relevant parties to realize the creation of this open society.

On Friday, TIFA will hold a seminar to discuss the trajectories of democracy among ASEAN members. Can you share a little bit of information about the event?

It is actually a forum to compare notes about democratic practices in the region, such as the practices in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.

The theme is “Racing to the Bottom?” If you look at the indicators, for example as shown by Freedom Houses’ and the Economist’s indexes, democracy in this region is witnessing a decline. In general, it’s becoming more undemocratic.

At this seminar, we want to explore the elements that can hamper the democratization process so we can prevent democracy from declining in the region.

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