Heavy rainfall and massive floods in Indonesia’s capital of Jakarta ushered in 2020 and the onset of a new decade. Was it a harbinger of environmental challenges to come? Natural disasters are nothing new to Indonesians, who have regularly experienced devastating tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides and man-made forest fires over the past decade. But the question many ask is whether any substantive lessons have been learned in managing, or at least, in mitigating these calamities. After all, there is still the unfinished business of nation-building – ensuring a just, equitable and tolerant democratic society – without the additional burden of ecological misfortunes.
Certainly, the past decade has been an eventful one, but not all bad. Two national and local elections were held simultaneously, with 180 million voting across the vast archipelago. It was all relatively fair and peaceful, despite religious tensions and suspicions of questionable campaigning methods. Given our tumultuous political history, a popularly elected president should be seen as something of a victory. Admittedly, however, there is still a long way to go before we can be recognized as a full-blown democracy. Cases of human rights, gender and other injustices have yet to be properly addressed. Growing religious intolerance remains a serious problem, in spite of constitutional and governmental protection. Some put the blame on the social media, twisting the way information is disseminated despite the government’s brave attempt to regulate the flow without sacrificing free speech and expression.
Maintaining such freedoms in the 20 years since Indonesia embarked on democratic reforms has proved to be one of the most difficult goals of all, particularly in the face of the powerful political elite and deeply-entrenched bureaucracy, both of which have managed to obfuscate the laws and regulations and maintain the status quo to their advantage. Like many observers, I am convinced these groups are probably the biggest impediment to progress and the reason why serious corruption is so difficult to manage.
There have also been some ups and downs in the effort to achieve sustainable development goals. In socio-economic terms, Indonesia must still catch up with her more affluent neighbors in the region, which have also witnessed significant changes in their respective societies. At long last, Myanmar held ‘free and fair’ elections in which civilians were voted in to represent the people in parliament, albeit alongside 75 appointed military members. But it is progress, nevertheless. Perhaps the biggest surprise in regional politics was the return of 94-year-old Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister of Malaysia following stormy general elections.
Local news and reports of important and interesting developments in the ASEAN region are what this revived AsiaViews news portal intends to monitor and upload. The objective is to try and fix the information disconnect among the peoples in the region by sharing stories so we can learn from each other, get to know and understand one another. I quote Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, who said in her annual press statement: “Indonesia is currently developing a narrative on ASEAN Identity. Indonesia hopes this narrative can be agreed on in 2020. This is part of Indonesia’s effort to strengthen the role of ASEAN in the region… allowing the ASEAN community to experience the benefits of ASEAN even more… and fortifying ASEAN centrality.”
Hopefully, AsiaViews serves that purpose.
YULI ISMARTONO
AsiaViews Managing Editor
