PRESIDENT : NATION'S JOURNEY MARKED BY UPS AND DOWNS

Jakarta, Aug. 14 (ANTARA) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recalled that after the independence proclamation and the liberation from colonialism, Indonesia's journey as a nation was very colorful and imbued with the romanticism of life.

"In the search for democracy, which sometimes had its ups and, not infrequently, its downs too. The experience of this search took stock of the ups-and-down of democracy in our beloved country," the head of state said in his state address delivered at plenary session of the Parliament here on Friday.

"In the aftermath of reformasi (reform movement), starting in 1998, we have worked very hard to embark again on a long journey to purify democracy," he said in his address prepared in the runup to the 64th anniversary of Indonesia's Independence.

After 10 years of the reform movement, what came to the fore was a democratic presidential multiparty system, namely, a presidential government on the basis of a not-too-simple multiparty system, he said.

"Such a system, although it was a correction to the democracy that we have embraced during the New Order period, inherently brought about not-too-light challenges. Because in the midst of the diverse interests of political parties, the effective operation of the government must still be assured," he said.

History has noted that, since the beginning of independence until the era of the nation's present life as a state, Indonesia has once adopted various models of democracy. From 1945 till 1959, the parliamentary democracy was born, he said.

At that time, governments came and gone in rapid succession, without really having the chance neither to consolidate nor to implement its programs.

Eventually, starting in 1959, as marked by the issuance of the 5th of July 1959 Presidential Decree, the Guided Democracy came into being.

The decision and the life as state were centralized and almost dominated by the President. The checks and balances mechanism was ineffective, he recalled.

Since 1966, a model of democracy with similar nuances, albeit with a different name, presented itself in the New Order era. Democracy embracing the noble name Pancasila, but its application was not in its entirety, in fact, it even deviated. What actually emerged was an authoritarianism that was definitely in contrary to the very principles and values of democracy itself.
"Indeed, we understand why President Soekarno, through the Presidential Decree, decided to return to the 1945 Constitution, because the Constituent Assembly, that was mandated to draw up a constitution did not manage to complete its task, whereas the political situation was very unstable, which made the government unable to function properly," he said.

President Soeharto, however, had opted for a semi-authoritarian democracy, so as to allow economic development to proceed satisfactorily, he said.

The merit and the demerit of these two types of democracy, which could not also be separated from the context of challenges and problems in the life as a state during that time, drove the nation to find and choose the most appropriate model of democracy to apply, he said.
He said the democracy that Indonesia has choosen must be consistently congruent with the universal values of democracy.

On the other hand, the application of democracy must still takes into account the local values as well as the basic nature of this diverse nation.

In the future, the maturation of Indonesia's democracy, must be consistent with the basic principles of constitutionalism.

"The democracy must grow egalitarian, namely a democracy that increasingly consolidates the checks and balances mechanism in the practice of our political life. A democracy founded on the respect to and application of impartial and dignified rule of law. A democracy that further guarantees and protects freedom and human rights," he said.

"Furthermore, a democracy whose existence continue to guarantee political stability and order. Thus, God willing, insya Allah, the democracy we embrace and apply will constantly be in line and congruent with the demand and progress of our nation's civilization," he stated.