Memorabilia Politica Reforma

J KRISTIADI

· 5 minutes read

Memorabilia, the remembrance of something beautiful and proper, maybe even obligatory to remember, is very important to correct past mistakes for a better future. Political momentum that deserves to be remembered and must be contemplated in the present context is the heroic memory of the empowerment of civil society that joined hands with other sociopolitical forces to seize people\'s sovereignty from the grip of political oligarchs that had monopolized power for decades. A wave of enthusiasm for winning the people\'s sovereignty was able to conquer the rulers who in the 1990s were nearly impossible to shake. Then, a political reform baby was born. Although still a "toddler", the little creature was able to produce some phenomenal regulations that can potentially eliminate chronic diseases that had proliferated for decades; corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN).

But, unfortunately, taking care of a democracy baby is not easy. In its growth, the little baby is deficient in nutrients due to a disease-carrying virus, which has caused the people’s sovereign state to be weak and almost paralyzed. Luckily it is not an idiot. The ferocious virus is self-interest and the desire for pleasure of power that is increasingly out of control. So deadly is the virus\' penetration that the authorities are addicted.

They are aware of the threat of state damage resulting from that behavior, but they have instead become the main groups to enjoy the state damage. The more damaged the country, the more comfortable the state destroyers sit on their throne. They seemed to consciously and deliberately preserve the political transition emergency.

The symptoms of state damage are very visible, and its manifestations include the existence of tens of thousands of overlapping, ambiguous, and contradictory laws and regulations. Proverbially, only a magical country can survive in a jungle of such rules.

The source of this miracle is the endurance of people who are willing to suffer because they still have hope for a good life in the future. However, the threshold of suffering endurance will shrink even more if there is no national leadership that understands the complexity of the problem and has moral competence and is able to feel the people\'s conscience.

The period of political transition is indeed painful. Huntington\'s classic studies prove, for several centuries, countries adhering to democratic systems experienced a back wave of changes in the political system, turning authoritarian again. It turns out that building democracy does not only build political institutions or structures, but also builds a civilized political culture (Samuel Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, 1991). Even, it is not impossible that a political transition will result in a civil war, like in Syria, after the "Spring" in the Middle East in 2011.

This policy is important because democracy without increasing people\'s welfare will increasingly lose its luck.

Toward the end of 2019, a bright spot appeared to illuminate the lack of enthusiasm for organizing a joint life. The hope lies in President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo\'s determination to issue an omnibus law. The priority is structuring rules in the economic field, specifically cutting and perfecting regulations that hamper investment and taxation. This policy is important because democracy without increasing people\'s welfare will increasingly lose its luck.

The public hopes that President Jokowi will also soon issue an omnibus law on the structuring of the power of the state and government. This agenda is more complicated because it involves directly the interests of political breakers. Overcoming the problem of satisfaction because of the political status quo of oligarchs is a formidable challenge. The desire to enjoy power has conquered the reason and moral competence of the political breakers.

Meanwhile, the omnibus law contents of governance of state power, among others, organize, regulate, and if necessary redefine relations and roles among state institutions, such as the People\'s Consultative Assembly (MPR), the House of Representatives (DPR), the Regional Representative Council (DPD), the Supreme Court, and the Constitutional Court. The fundamental question is whether the state power structure adheres to a system of separation of powers (trias politica) or the division of powers of these institutions.

In the area of governmental power, if Indonesia still adheres to a presidential system, then the complexity of the system to the multiparty system must be completely rearranged. The issue includes many laws, such as laws on election, regional government, regional head elections, central and regional financial relations, state finance, and land affairs.It must be remembered that a regulation is not a balm that can treat all types of diseases. This is because the crisis of confidence in democracy also occurs at the global level. Some studies, even when expressing optimism, are also skeptical and cynical.

Examples of this are: The Dark Side of Democracy: Violence of Civil Society in Indonesia, 2015 and Foreign Affairs, Is Democracy Dying?, May/June 2018. In essence, democracy is considered obsolete because it cannot answer social and economic inequality while guaranteeing a sense of security and fighting sectarianism.

If this problem can be overcome, the community will fully welcome the dawn of 2020 with hope because the suffering during the birth of reform will be healed with happiness.

J KRISTIADI, Senior Researcher, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

Editor:

corruption People's Consultative Assembly kompascetak Political Analysis regional representative council collusion and nepotism (kkn)