Almost 15 years have passed since the fall of the New Order, but most of the period of the Reform order is considered a failure. On one hand, Indonesia has succeeded in realising democratic structure, human rights abuses have declined sharply, and economy is progressing, but on the other hand, the anti-corruption, collusion and nepotism have failed.
Indonesia, in the view of Prof. Dr. Franz Magnis Suseno, is uncertain. International reviews have shown Indonesia as more positive than negative, Indonesia was accepted in the G-20 and praised as third largest democracy. “But we in the country know that not all that glitters is gold, and that the worse became worst. Our Republic is shaken by minor crises and scandals while no breakthrough has been made which we can be proud of. For most of the economic growth is the effect of the natural resources that we sell to other countries, not industry and increasing work efficiency,” said Franz Magnis in the Senate Hall of UGM, Saturday (23/20) when became speaker in the Workshop entitled Returning to the Identity of Indonesians: Challenges and Opportunities, run by the Council of Professors UGM.
The successes is mostly due to the export of palm oil not shrimps. Indonesia is number one in destroying rainforests and mangroves. “The dissatisfaction and uncertainties have reminded us of the situation back in 1955 when people were dissatisfied with the post-election government, at the time when Sukarno terminated democracy and announced the guided democracy that led to the economic destruction and the 1965-1966 tragedy,” he said.
Franz Magnis Suseno said that at least four serious threats can bring Indonesia to democratic destruction at present. Those are: the failure of regional autonomy, injustices in creating social justice, the more freedom for religious ideology which is radical, fundamental and extreme, and the donwnfall of political class in money politics and corruption.
Prof. Ir. Rinaldy Dalimi, M.Sc., Ph.D highlighted the condition of the state and human beings in the perspective of technology sovereignty, that as a country that uses many of technologies of other countries, Indonesia is vulnerable and dependant on them in technology use. Indonesia has no expertise – whether short termed in technology operation and expert availability, or long termed in maintenance, repair, spareparts and raw materials.
“The dependency is not in terms of technology only, but also requirements from the country owning the technology to the Indonesian government when the contract is made,” he said.
In Rinaldy’s opinion, some factors causing dependency is that the technology used or purchased is high-tech ones that have not been mastered by Indonesians. Other factors are no spareparts or no raw materials while the cooperation being made requires the use of technology of that country.