A Message to Our Arrogant Leaders: We Are Not the Problem, You Are
Yohanes Sulaiman | May 08, 2012
 |
| 'The government needs to start listening to what people want, to the concerns of the people on the street.' |
In late April, Indonesian students and Islamic representatives in Germany criticized lawmakers who visited the country ostensibly to determine whether the embassy needed renovating. The students called the Indonesian lawmakers “village bumpkins” and said the trip was a waste of money and an excuse for a vacation.
In Lampung last week, thousands of locals tore down and decapitated a statue of former Governor Zainal Abidin, in a style reminiscent of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Iraq in 2003 in the aftermath of the US invasion. The move followed months of fruitless discussions over whether the statue should be taken down, as residents saw it as a monument to corruption.
The two cases have a common element: So-called leaders believe they know best, and think ordinary folk are ignorant and just get in the way.
They think if they ram their ideas down the throats of the public long enough they will acquiesce. Official reaction to the events were predictably dismissive, with claims that the people were “oknum” (p rovocateurs who did not understand the big picture).
After the criticism in Germany, Yoris Raweyai, one of the visiting House commission members, said the students had acted “unethically.” The speaker of the House, Marzuki Alie, put the whole affair down to a “miscommunication.”
It was not mentioned that the students in question had monitored the commission’s movements and found they spent much of their time at leisure, at the expense of the taxpayer.
Nobody mentioned that evaluating embassy renovation needs is the job of the Foreign Ministry. The House holds the purse strings and should act as a watchdog to prevent waste. But this frivolous excursion has cast its moral authority on such matters into serious doubt once more.
Surely, the House members should have taken on board the humiliation suffered last year when students grilled lawmakers who were visiting Australia and found them similarly underprepared.
In Lampung, the governor, district head and their supporters said Zainal Abidin was worthy of the 10-meter-high statue, and it was the protesters’ lack of understanding that was the problem. The statue was legitimate, they said, because it had been approved by the regional legislative chamber.
Lampung has been consumed by conflicts over land as plantation companies have bought licenses issued by local authorities for land claimed under customary laws. Several companies have used private militia and the police to intimidate people and throw them off their land. Protesters felt that the statue smacked of nepotism and dynasty-building, as the current governor of Lampung and the district head of the area where the statue was erected are the son and grandson of Zainal Abidin, respectively. The Rp 1.3 billion ($140,000) would have been better used to alleviate poverty rather than glorifying a dynasty, they said.
People were fed up with business as usual and the arrogance of “leaders” and decided to publicly humiliate them. Leaders would be foolish to think that they can continue to tell the public what to do and expect people to fall meekly into line.
The government has to start building its case based upon facts and strong ideas at a time when the income gap between the rich and poor in Indonesia is growing. The government needs to start listening to what people want, to the concerns of the people on the street.
Anything that the government cannot justify should go. Indonesians continue to show they are increasingly willing to take to the street to show the government up.
------
serenityjam
9:43am May 8,
2012
It is similar to an abusive manager in a private enterprise who assumes that he or she can act like a master and can demand anything. It is the system.
Therefore, we have to amend the system from an "open-ended" mechanism for government leaders to do what they think they are permitted to do to a "well-defined" self-regulating mechanism.
For instance, leaders traveling abroad must submit a checklist of things to be done. Upon their return,they have to present a report of things accomplished. This report must be signed by every member and posted in government website and printed in major daily newspapers.
Citizens will be able to judge if the trip was valid or not. I think next time they will be careful in asking for funds to travel again.
LJS
9:46am May 8,
2012
zerodiversity
9:54am May 8,
2012
LadyBuggers
10:01am May 8,
2012
jchay
10:11am May 8,
2012
While government officials in other country (like Japan, Korea) are willing to apologize and resign when they are not performing or got into scandals, the Indonesian officials are instead openly rejecting their faults and insisting to stay in office with salary paid by our hard-earned tax paying money. There is no honor and value in their character.
As for enforcement, it is close to non-existence in Indonesia.. some even can bend the law and make them impune from punishment.
Uncle JC
10:18am May 8,
2012
chantlove
10:21am May 8,
2012
DrDez
10:28am May 8,
2012
Roland
10:28am May 8,
2012
"The SEAKER of the House, Marzuki..."
Shouldn't it be rather 'SPEAKER', or is it an intended "typo", meant to be leaning on Parsifal, the seeker of the Holy Grail?
Great article BTW, as usual from Mr. Yohanes Sulaiman.
To call the students in Germany "unethical" is one of these typical "we don't let us squeeze into a defensive position - we are biting back the hand that feeds us" attitude of politicians. How can a politician even dare to call the public "unethical" while they are acting on a permanent base as such (just look into the daily news). Nasty people (with a few noticeable exceptions).
Cupid.Stunt
10:34am May 8,
2012
Impunity, arrogance, apathy, denial, deceit, lip-service-only, and the ‘I’m above the Law’ attitude need to be eliminated from public life in this country.
Do this, and maybe Indonesia can start to address the real issues of corruption, law & order, education, infrastructure, health and religious harmony, etc.
This story is a good start, the first step AWAY from the abyss.
foreigner94
10:57am May 8,
2012
.Regarding travel to foreigner countries , I saw many engineers (public servants) wanting to travel abroad because of the very high money they received for the expenses . Almost 20 years ago , as I heard , each engineer received US$300 per day , to cover hotel , food , and other expenses . At that time this amount of money was equivalent to their monthly salary , so traveling abroad was the first priority for them . And , in my opinion , to do nothing relevant in those trips .
Yohanes-Sulaiman
1:30pm May 8,
2012
anon.everywhere
2:08pm May 8,
2012
Bataviaforever
2:50pm May 8,
2012
There I got to know brilliant Indonesian students who were there for a post-graduate.
As the event was co-hosted by the embassy, I asked the students what kind of support they received from the embassy.
The answer; "none whatsoever"...
rf2102
3:31pm May 8,
2012
Other ways to get "pocket money" is to play with their housing allowance, e.g finding houses/apartments with 1000 euros rent and reporting it to the office a, pocketing the difference, and then there is the issue of "uang representasi" or that fund they claim to use for "lobbying" but in fact many of these "lobbies" are also bogus.
So many other practices like this going on in Indonesian Embassies worldwide, and when students/Indonesians living overseas ask for support, they get nothing.
jetset24
5:50am May 9,
2012
Furthermore you hear gossips of Indonesian celebrities rubbing shoulder to shoulder with Islamic guidance imams or what have you. Do you hear of Hollywood celebrities chumming with Christian spiritual leaders...Do you? C'est vraiment trop drole, non?
utu.minut
6:31am May 9,
2012
bulebule
6:47am May 9,
2012
dimsumcapcay
8:54am May 9,
2012
Pity the nation.
Dez
9:19am May 9,
2012
No comments:
Post a Comment