Immature democracy

(In a news programme this afternoon, it was reported that a group of people held a protest in a golf course in Bandung. The villagers were not happy with the developer because it closed the main access road to their village and replaced it with a narrow muddy path. The villagers pulled out the grass and the shrubs nearby. Moreover, they tried to break down the fence between their village and the golf course.)

This violence scene is not uncommon in every protests in Indonesia, ranging from littering to burning of property. Recently, a group of students in Maluku were taken into custody for burning the picture of the president.

The spirit of local democracy is so high after the downfall of the late then president Soeharto. In his era, the new order, any public showing of resentment were banned. Those who were too vocal would be labeled as the enemy of the state, and some were even kidnapped and their whereabouts are not known until today. No one dared to voice out against the government and it's policies. Thus, when the law governing subversive behaviour was abolished, people tried to express themselves in the way they want. The May 98 tragedy, which involved burning, looting and raping, was one dark scene picturing how unruly a protest could be.

Back to the golf course incident, the crowd refused to leave and instead, devastated the field. They put off the flag pole and broke it. They pulled out a tree and dragged it all along the green area, leaving the grass in a miserable state. They thought that by destroying the developer's property, they would get what they want, a smooth wide road. In fact, I do think that the developer will not fulfill their wish as the money allocated for the road will be used to repair the golf course.

I sometimes do think that protesters in other country such as Thailand were more civilized. When the yellow shirt seized the Suvarnabhumi airport, there was no litter left. The area was clean and in good condition.

I talked to a man on my way back to Bandung from Soekarno-Hatta airport. He explained his experience in Manila. In there, he said, the protestors were in order and when they left the park where they gathered, the flowers were still there, alive.