Pada bulan September 1955, Republik Indonesia yang masih sangat muda
menyelenggarakan pemilihan umum (pemilu) yang pertama. Pemilu itu
berlangsung dengan sangat baik. Harapan sangat tinggi bahwa demokrasi
di Indonesia kemudian akan semakin mantap. Tetapi sejarah ternyata tidak
mencatat demikian. Setelah itu kehidupan demokrasi di Indonesia terus
menyurut. Apa yang salah?
Delapan bulan setelah pemilu itu, Presiden Soekarno mengadakan perlawatan ke Amerika Serikat dan di sana menyampaikan pidato di hadapan Sidang Gabungan Kongres Amerika Serikat. Pidato itu membahas berbagai masalah dunia dan mendapat sambutan luar biasa. Ada satu bagian dari pidato tersebut yang mengupas mengenai masalah demokrasi yang ingin saya kutip disini. Inilah kata-kata beliau dari teks pidato aslinya :
“... We have our feet on the road to democracy, and we have made a good start. But we will not deceive ourselves with the false illusion that we have traversed the full extent of the road to democracy, if indeed any end there be.
The secret ballot, the free press, the freedom of belief, the votings in parliaments - these are all merely expressions of democracy. Freedom of expression has a guardian in a certain measure of prosperity, the achievement of freedom from want.
For us then, democratic principles are not simply an aim. The expression of desire inherent in human nature, they are also a means of providing our people with reasonable standard of living. The freedom of expression and the freedom of wants are indivisible, two interdependent souls in our body.
As with all other freedoms, freedom of expression is no absolute, its indiscriminate and unrestrained exercise could hamper harmonious growth of other freedoms, could hamper the harmonious growth from want, and thus sow the seed for the destruction of the fundamentals of human freedom itself...
... To the famished man democracy can never be more than a slogan. What can a vote mean to a woman worn out by toll, whose children fret and all with the fever of malaria? Democracy is not merely government by the people, democracy is also government for the people ..."
Kata-kata peringatan Bung Karno ini penting untuk diingat, apabila kita inginkan demokrasi kita kali ini tidak gagal seperti dulu.
Jakarta, 21 Nopember 2011
Delapan bulan setelah pemilu itu, Presiden Soekarno mengadakan perlawatan ke Amerika Serikat dan di sana menyampaikan pidato di hadapan Sidang Gabungan Kongres Amerika Serikat. Pidato itu membahas berbagai masalah dunia dan mendapat sambutan luar biasa. Ada satu bagian dari pidato tersebut yang mengupas mengenai masalah demokrasi yang ingin saya kutip disini. Inilah kata-kata beliau dari teks pidato aslinya :
“... We have our feet on the road to democracy, and we have made a good start. But we will not deceive ourselves with the false illusion that we have traversed the full extent of the road to democracy, if indeed any end there be.
The secret ballot, the free press, the freedom of belief, the votings in parliaments - these are all merely expressions of democracy. Freedom of expression has a guardian in a certain measure of prosperity, the achievement of freedom from want.
For us then, democratic principles are not simply an aim. The expression of desire inherent in human nature, they are also a means of providing our people with reasonable standard of living. The freedom of expression and the freedom of wants are indivisible, two interdependent souls in our body.
As with all other freedoms, freedom of expression is no absolute, its indiscriminate and unrestrained exercise could hamper harmonious growth of other freedoms, could hamper the harmonious growth from want, and thus sow the seed for the destruction of the fundamentals of human freedom itself...
... To the famished man democracy can never be more than a slogan. What can a vote mean to a woman worn out by toll, whose children fret and all with the fever of malaria? Democracy is not merely government by the people, democracy is also government for the people ..."
Kata-kata peringatan Bung Karno ini penting untuk diingat, apabila kita inginkan demokrasi kita kali ini tidak gagal seperti dulu.
Jakarta, 21 Nopember 2011
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