HarianUmmat.com ■ Former Cabinet Secretary in the era of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), Dipo Alam criticized the current democratic climate in Indonesia, which he considered was starting to clog up.
The people's rights to express opinions are clashed with the rubber articles in the Information and Electronic Transactions Law.
Worse, every criticism must be juxtaposed with articles of insulting the president.
He compared the democratic system in the era of Soeharto, BJ Habibie, and SBY.
Soeharto, who was known to be very authoritarian, still valued students as intellectuals and would-be future technocrats.
"Rizal Ramli and I have been detained several times for criticizing Suharto's policies. However, Mr. Harto still gave us freedom to go to higher education," Dipo said on the Hersubeno Point channel on YouTube, quoted Thursday, December 3, 2020.
After the Soeharto era, President BJ Habibie carried out extraordinary policies that were ultimately able to improve the economy quickly. BJ Habibie revoked the regulations that clog democracy.
In the SBY era, democracy ran well. Anyone can criticize the government.
This can be seen from the fact that there were not many reports submitted to the police, even though at that time the ITE Law already existed.
After the SBY era, he continued, cases of reporting of insults to the government / president increased sharply. From this it shows, in the Jokowi era, a semi-democratic system was implemented.
"Critics of the government were immediately reported with the suspicion of insulting the president. This is a rubber law that was abolished for a long time but has appeared again," said the man who was born on November 17, 1949.
Currently, said Dipo Alam, people are forced to be patient with the government.
All policies cannot be overly criticized because they will certainly be linked to articles and the rubber law.
"Habib Rizieq Shihab can be patient, I also have to be patient because I am older than him. Right now we all have to be patient with the government, just how long? is happening now, "he explained.
He said, in the SBY era, for critics, a persuasive approach was used. Invited into a dialogue and explained the true intentions of the government. Not even being reported to the police or being corrected.
Dipo Alam admitted that when he was the district head, he often made this persuasive approach without SBY's knowledge. This is because he knows what the critics think is incorrect, so they must be given correct information.
