VII of X: A Jewel in Agony Continues
Indonesia is, indeed, a jewel in agony. It wouldn't have to go through this phase of bloody human rights violation towards the Chinese and other minorities if it had done its homework on legal, political, cultural and religious issues in its infancy as a nation. These are the issues that I believe to have some overlapping influences in its journey as a nation.
We all know that the Dutch sovereignty upon Indonesia for 350 years has conditioned Indonesian government and the society to think like the way they did. The Dutch, with its "devide et impera" politics divided Indonesian society into three groups: European, East Asian and the indigenous. The division is not merely a social conditioning or a form of social interaction but as a part of the legal system. And it is the very same law that we have been enforcing to this very day.
With inequality in the legal system, Indonesia kept its track to the globalization of all nations, a mysterious destination in the unknown future. Political institutions and policies that are based on that system continue to flourish supported by Indonesian Javanese culture. Both of Indonesian presidents who have ruled for more than the first 50 years -since 1945-were Javanese. The culture of Javanese places a high respect on leaders as a father figure or a ruling king with divine power and spiritual relationship with divine figures.
This cultural aspect -that a leader possesses an absolute degree of ruling autonomy-continues to play important role in the decision-making process. It is a social norm in the governmental agencies to become a "good boy" or a "yes man" in order to have a good career and to achieve a ruling autonomy.
As Lord Acton once beckoned, "Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely," moral hazard is the notorious risk for possessing power. In a permissive cultural atmosphere and an unfair legal system, it flourishes even more rapidly. Indonesia's former Minister of Information, to illustrate, possessed an absolute power in his department. He acted as the executive, legislative and judicative powers, borrowing Montesquieu's Trias Politica concept. He run the department as the executive authority and regulated by issuing permits and instructions as the legislator.Moreover, he even judged whether an external institution violates his regulation as a judicial entity. It is obvious in SIUPP cases, where a publication's permit is banned by his sole judgment. In Indonesia, thus, acting corruptly with absolute power is
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