Democracy – can it be improved?
The April general election in
Indonesia which saw President Joko Widodo returned for a second five-year term was
a logistical megatrial for the Komisi Pemilihan Umum (General
Elections Commission - KPU), and an ordeal for participants.
Around 240,000 candidates jostled
for over 20,000 seats in local and national legislatures in the world’s third
largest democracy. (India is first, the US second).
Ben Bland of Australia’s
Lowy Institute called it ‘the most complicated single-day ballot in global
history’.
Although almost 600 of the seven
million Indonesian election workers reportedly died from exhaustion, the event
was reckoned a success, though the operation may be modified next time round in
2024. Indian parliamentary elections this year were spread across six weeks.
The original Greek idea of
democracy (‘demos’ - commoners, ‘kratos’ - strength) has been around for 2,500
years yet it’s still a work in progress. No nation has a mortgage on how best
to represent the will of the people so ensuring voting is fair and equal is a
global issue.
Now Indonesians and others have the chance to comment through a neighbor’s
parliamentary inquiry. The search for definitions and better ways has spread to
Australia,
a self-governing democracy since 1901. The Senate (the upper house representing the States in the national parliament in Canberra) is holding an open inquiry into Nationhood, National Identity and Democracy and inviting submissions – including from foreign individuals and associations.
The British Economist Intelligence Unit publishes a Democracy Index. This ranks 164 United Nations member states into ‘full democracies’, ‘flawed democracies’, ‘hybrid regimes’ and ‘authoritarian regimes’. It does this by measuring pluralism, civil liberties and political cultures.
Indonesia is labeled a ‘flawed democracy’, along with neighbors Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. This group also includes the United States where only 55 per cent got involved in the 2016 elections.
More than 80 per cent of the 193
million eligible Indonesian voters exercised their rights though participation
was voluntary. These figures seem to
show the Republic’s teenage democracy is robust and optimistic despite having
the ‘flawed’ tag.
Indonesia only became a democracy
this century after 32 years of the late General Soeharto’s New Order dictatorship so many questions are bubbling to the
surface.
Foremost is this: Is democracy, which comes from a Western
cultural tradition, the best model for choosing leaders? The winners are happy,
the losers not so, like supporters of the failed presidential candidate Prabowo
Subianto.
They claim it’s unfair that a villager
laboring in a rice field should have the same single-vote power as a member of
the educated elite debating esoteric issues in Jakarta’s high-rise offices.
As outlined in Strategic Review two years ago http://sr-indonesia.com/web-exclusives/view/diehard-myths-threaten-indonesian-democracy a hankering remains for the traditional
decision-making systems like musyawarah (consensus after long
discussion). That way differences can be
resolved without resorting to a binary Yes-No vote.
A decade ago US social scientist Larry Diamond’s book The Spirit of
Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies throughout the World,
argued that a renewed democratic boom needs ‘vigorous support of good
governance—the rule of law, security, protection of individual rights, and
shared economic prosperity—and free civic organizations.’Why should a ‘full democracy’ nation like Australia indulge in a spate of navel gazing? The riots in Hong Kong show political ideologies can no longer be confined by high border walls when the Internet wafts across oceans and immigration controls.
Thousands of Chinese students studying in Australia and raised to believe in the supremacy of a one-party state have been clashing with pro-democracy supporters on Australian streets and campuses. Free-speech issues have been wrenched out of political science tutorials and onto the front pages of mainstream newspapers.
Of the 800,000 overseas students in Australia, 230,000 are from mainland China.
Submissions to the Senate inquiry are not confined to Australian citizens and agencies based Down Under, so psephologists, policy analysts, journalists and others here and elsewhere can make their own points. They do not have to be specific to Australia.
They need to be quick as the closing date is the end of
this month.
Of interest to internationalists are three questions among
the many flagged for attention:
* What role
does globalization and economic interdependence and economic development play
in forming or disrupting traditional notions of national identity?
* What are contemporary notions
of cultural identity, multiculturalism and regionalism?
* The
extent to which nation states balance domestic imperatives and sovereignty and
international obligations;The inquiry’s discussion paper to aid submitters can be downloaded here: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/Nationhood/Discussion_paper
The paper states that ‘around the world, voters seem increasingly dissatisfied with how democratic politics works for them. Public trust in democratic institutions is declining. Notions of national identity, which can be the roots of a democratic community, are changing as our world becomes increasingly interconnected.’
Apart from disillusionment there’s growing disinterest. This month The Guardian newspaper polled 1,075 voters, finding only 15 per cent follow events in Canberra closely.
A similar number showed no interest in politics, with the rest casual consumers of national affairs. What Australians really like is sport.
The discussion paper adds: ‘There is a wealth of evidence showing a worrying decline in the level of public trust. In 2007, 86 per cent of Australians were satisfied with how democracy works in Australia. That figure is now 41 per cent.
‘Evidence also suggests that those with the lowest incomes are least satisfied with democracy.’
These issues aren’t limited to the Southern Hemisphere. British researchers have revealed around half of UK voters reckon the big parties and politicians don't care about the wee folk who put them into power.
A Pew Research Center study in the US disclosed that only 17 per cent of Americans said they can trust the government in Washington to do the right thing 'just about always' or 'most of the time'.
Australians won’t be the only people studying the Senate inquiry’s findings due next May.
Whether the Australian Parliament or other legislatures will implement any recommendations is another matter.
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First published in Strategic Review - 9 October 2019. See:http://sr.sgpp.ac.id/post/democracy-can-it-be-improved
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