There are alarming signs that the Indonesia Government is not reading the mood of its people correctly and that its failure to do so will result in increasing unrest and violence. As Indonesia enjoys greater foreign investment and greater wealth from economic development, its people will rightly demand greater participation in the way they are governed and in the way that the rewards of economic development are distributed.
This week Indonesian police detained 14 labour and student activists after workers demanding higher wages clashed with police in the country’s second-largest city of Surabaya. They face charges carrying up to life imprisonment. This action follows the recent infiltration and illicit take-over of the main opposition party by forces loyal to the Suharto Government.
The Suharto Government is rightly concerned about unrest jeopardising economic development and causing disunity in a nation of many ethnic and religious groups. However, it must realise that repression of dissent and legitimate demands for greater participation in how economic growth is distributed is much more likely to exacerbate the frightening of investors than to encourage them.
There is nothing peculiarly western about desires and demands for greater participation. Nor is there anything peculiarly Asian about the need for national harmony. Indeed, if anything we are seeing the reverse. The demands for greater democratisation are heard more forcefully in Asia and harmonious national unity in a context of pluralism of views is being achieved more easily, by and large, in the western democracies.