Strengthening Democratic Culture

The solution to fragile democracy is to strengthen it, not to condone practices that weaken democracy.

The following article was translated using both Microsoft Azure Open AI and Google Translation AI. The original article can be found in Memperkuat Budaya Demokrasi

HERYUNANTO

Illustration

Ulil Abshar Abdalla's writing, "Understanding Prabowo's Victory" (Kompas, 15/2/2024), one day after the election, presents an interesting message to pay attention to. In the article, Ulil believes that Prabowo Subianto's victory is proof that the people still want Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) path to development.

Furthermore, he conveyed criticism about the gap between what is considered priority issues for the educated and the wider community.

For the first group, the issue of the decline democracy is a serious matter that should be a main consideration in making their choice. For this reason, regime change must be carried out to save democracy in Indonesia. The Prabowo-Gibran pair, which is seen as a continuation of the Jokowi regime and is running in the presidential election after going through an ethics case involving the Constitutional Court, should not be an option.

Meanwhile, for the general public, this matter is not the main thing. It turns out that people have their own thoughts about what they call important, which Ulil calls popular wisdom. Interestingly, although Ulil does not deny that Indonesia is experiencing a decline in democracy, he also attacks intellectuals who are sounding the alarm to save our democracy.

The solution to the fragility of democracy is to strengthen it, not to justify practices that weaken democracy and then turn to authoritarianism.

Fragility of support for democracy

However, is Ulil's claim true? Is it true that the majority of society is indifferent to the decline of democracy and therefore does not support democratic values?

In political science studies, a question like this is a crucial question in the research tradition on political culture. Simply put, political culture can be defined as the attitudes, beliefs, emotions, and values of society towards the political system and political issues, including democracy (Kavanagh, 1972).

A survey conducted by Asian Barometer (in Warburton and Aspinall, 2019) has produced interesting findings about the low level of public support for democracy. When asked whether the public considers democracy to be more important than economic development, only 7 percent of respondents agreed. Meanwhile, the majority of citizens (93 percent) prefer economic development.

In other words, in a situation where economic difficulties are affecting daily life, society is willing to sacrifice their democratic rights. It appears that the general public does not view democracy as a system to protect the rights of citizens, fair electoral competition, and oversight of those in power.

Instead, they view democracy as a good form of governance that results in economic needs fulfillment. In short, a democratic government is one that produces satisfactory economic performance.

Seeing this figure, it is not surprising that The Economist Intelligence Units (EIU), a world institution headquartered in London, reports that Indonesia's democratic culture score shows a decreasing trend from year to year. In the EIU report, democratic culture is one of five indicators for measuring democracy in addition to: government function, elections and pluralism, political participation and civil liberties.

In terms of the culture of democracy, we once received a decent score of 6.25 out of 10 in 2015 and 2016. This score is not bad, although it is not too good either.

Afterwards, for three consecutive years (2017-2019), this score then decreased and stagnated at 5.63. The low score then decreased to 4.38 in 2020 and remained stagnant in 2021, 2022, and 2023. This downward trend is in line with the decreasing average value of our democracy index from year to year which supports the opinion of various political scientists about the decline of democracy in Indonesia.

In other words, in a situation where economic difficulties impinge on daily life, the community is willing to sacrifice their democratic rights.

The number above shows that more than two decades of reform turned out to be too short a time to ensure that democratic values could be internalized well among the broader population. However, two decades is actually a very short time compared to established democratic countries, such as the United States and England, which have been practicing democracy for hundreds of years.

Long before, political scientist Samuel P Huntington (1993) warned that the transition from authoritarianism to democracy is a long process and requires efforts to nurture and establish democratic institutions and culture. Here, the task of political parties and educated individuals is to fill the void.

Political education

Unfortunately, the task of political education is neglected by political parties and their elites. Never mind providing education, various studies actually say that political parties are one of the institutions that have been slowest in improving themselves since the Reformation era. It is widely known that the party has serious problems in terms of cadres and regeneration.

Oligarchy and dynasty politics are also prevalent within our political parties, making them actually one of the least democratic institutions. Instead of providing widespread democratic education to the public, elites are busy exhibiting behaviors that contradict democratic values.

As the 2024 election approaches, this acrobatics even manifested in the most serious form of denial of democratic rules in the scandalous decision of the Constitutional Court that violates the ethics of national life. Note: The article does not contain any of the forbidden words.

With this situation, it is not surprising that surveys from various institutions show that political parties are the most untrusted institutions by the public. In 2023, for example, a survey by Populi Center found that only 59.3 percent trust political parties. In the same year, a survey by Indikator Politik even found a slightly worse figure: 58 percent.

In this context, protests from thousands of academics, from at least 70 universities and hundreds of civil society activists from at least 20 organizations, should be interpreted as an effort to fill the dysfunction of political parties in this political education work.

Instead of seeing it as "hidden arrogance" as Ulil accused, the reprimand is a reminder that the values and ethics of democracy must be embraced and implemented wholeheartedly. Civil society and academics are correct in pointing out that our democracy is under threat. They refuse to surrender and normalize all allegations of ethical violations and election fraud that occur.

Also read: Understanding Prabowo's Victory

Furthermore, democracy education must be continued on campuses by incorporating it into university curriculums. Civil society needs to continue its efforts in promoting democratic schooling that is already underway. The values of democracy must be continuously spread without knowing the word "stop".

The solution to the fragility of democracy is to strengthen it, rather than justifying practices that weaken democracy and then turning to authoritarianism.

Wijayanto,Lecturer in Media and Democracy, Diponegoro University; Director of the Center for Media and Democracy; Principal of the Democracy School, LP3ES

ARSIP PRIBADI

Wijayanto