Stanley Weiss is reknowed business consultant who travels widely in Asia. He is a proponent of Indonesian democracy and is fond of Bali. His message in this article is that a tolerant and pluralistic Indonesia is possible so long as political and economic empowerment reaches to the majority of the Muslim poor.
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The Indonesian Parliament recently passed two landmark legislation . On July 11, the Aceh Governance Act was passed, after over 5 months of debate following the agreement between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM) reached at Helsinki in August 2005. The agreement was brokered by the European Union and representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). All credit to Interior Minister Muhammad Maaruf and his staff who tirelessly defended that the any provisions of the MOU with GAM must pass the litmus test of Indonesian sovereignty as provided in the Indonesian Constitution of 1945.
GAM had insisted, for example, that the Indonesian Defense Force (TNI), should exclusively deal with “external defense” and that only the Indonesian Police be assigned to internal security duties. This demand runs counter to article 30 of the Indonesian constitution which stipulates that all Indonesian citizens are obliged to participate in the “total defense and security” of the nation. Hence, the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines of the TNI (and even civilians) have an important role to play in supporting police in internal security affairs.
It’s a measure of our times of political transition that the debate about Pancasila as state identity (dasar negara) continues even after President Yudhoyono’s reaffirmation of the precepts as the “fundamental basis of our national life” on June 1, 2006, at the 61st anniversary of the birth of Pancasila speech proclaimed by the late President Soekarno on June 1, 1945, a few months before Indonesia’s declaration of independence on August 17, 1945. President Yudhoyono emphasized the need to fulfill the basic consensus since 1945: Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution, The Unitary State of Indonesia, Diversity in Unity.
Some Islamist groups had alarmed minority and non-Islamic communities with their fervent call for a stricter adherence to a more Islamic precept of social, economic and political life by pushing for an all-encompassing official restriction on “amoral and lewd” behavior, giving rise to fears that other communities will have to be subjected to legal norms contravening their respective personal and public code of conduct. Several regional governments have issued edicts applying shariah law for public behavior. The Ministry of Home Affairs is reviewing some of these edicts, which may directly contravene basic provisions of the Indonesian Constitution of 1945.