(JP/P.J. Leo)When a beacon in the dark dies out, one hopes that its light will soon be replaced. This was the hope when we heard of the passing of our loyal columnist Johannes Baptista Soedjati Djiwandono on Wednesday at around 5:30 p.m. He passed away following complications from various ailments at the age of 79 at the St. Carolus Hospital in Central Jakarta, leaving his wife Vonny Djiwandono, two children and three grandchildren.

Pak Soedjati, as he was called, was a lone voice during the New Order. To our pride, he once said that only The Jakarta Post had dared to publish his views under then president Soeharto’s rule. But although the nation is now well past that authoritarian era, we still need many figures like Pak Soedjati, who so eloquently and passionately aired his views. His was a voice that spoke of what it took for Indonesia to become a democratic nation, if it claimed to be a humanitarian, God fearing country with its head held high in the global arena.

It was probably very easy for a Western trained scholar to write like he did. He was a graduate of international relations from the London School of Economics (LSE), like many of our writers today, but Soedjati, born on Oct. 13, 1933, came from the inside, a former member of parliament from the Golkar Party. The advantage of his experience was that he knew the strengths and weaknesses of the political system. Soedjati was one of the founders of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank once close to Soeharto.

“I’ve been questioned by Bakin [State Intelligence Coordinating Board] and Bais [Strategic Intelligence Agency] about my views, but I was never afraid because what I said was the truth,” he told the Post in a 2003 interview.

Soedjati was the ninth of 13 children, who inherited some gamelan and sculpting skills from his father, Thomas Sastro Djiwandono, an artist of various talents serving the Yogyakarta court. His younger brother was a former chief of Bank Indonesia, Soedradjat Djiwandono. The palace of Javanese culture was supposedly among the references for Soeharto’s interpretation of Pancasila, a monopolized interpretation that equated dissent with sacrilege.

But while a whole nation memorized Pancasila from a very young age, regarding everything about it noble without question, Soedjati wrote of the “unfolding tragedy” that had engulfed the birth of the ideology; the fact that we never resolved the question of state and church and its consequences today.

Pak Soedjati witnessed the post-Soeharto years and wrote on well past reformasi, warning us of the doomsday scenario if we let things be, or a “tyranny of the majority”- the feared consequence of the nation’s unresolved issue of whether it was to be a religious or secular state.

He had cited the 2003 National Education Law, the deliberations of the then pornographic bill and the draft amendment of criminal law, with roots in Islamic law. The changed education law, which made religious teaching compulsory at all levels of schooling, was “certainly a violation of freedom of worship”, he wrote. With not much discourse on this issue, despite some controversy we now see plans for a new curriculum that will add religious studies to the existing curriculum, with the aim of better character building. This was bold writing for a member of the Catholic minority.

More than 10 years ago Soedjati wrote: “My own beloved country definitely constitutes an independent state. I would hesitate, however, to give a definite answer to the simple question, ‘is Indonesia a free country?’” Despite more freedom of expression, he said, “the freedom to have our own views and opinions on certain things not in line with the ‘mainstream’ … remains curtailed.” While many still yearned for freedom, he added: “Freedom from fear is just a wish”, with the state still tampering with freedom of worship.

Decades after completing his thesis on international communism at the LSE, Soedjati ridiculed the national ban on the spreading and teaching of communism, issued following the failed 1965 coup attempt blamed on the banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Most survivors and victims of the political upheaval of the 1960s remain stigmatized.

Soedjati’s thoughts still ring true today but we are in dire need for replacements for the beacon of light that he represented.

Popular

To my horror, it’s just a movie!

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Pentagon chief congratulates Prabowo on being elected President