Reviving Communist Party inIndonesia? Why not?

by Toshi

“Communism is definitely the best political system, ever”, my PRC senior once told me, “you know, I’mlike envisioning a world where all countries in the world would unite under a single leadership of communism”“But that’s impossible”, I retorted.“Not for now,

lah

. Perhaps year 2500, or year 3000…”“But why do you PRC people endorse communism that much, huh?”“Well Toshi, you see… The thing is, even democracy like Singapore doesn’t allow people to speak freely.So, what’s the point of having democracy, then? It would be better off to have communism out in the openrather than having democracy yet restricting their freedom of speech”“Hmm… yeah, I suppose you’re right”, I said.The conversation above happened three years ago in Singapore when my geographical knowledge was notso widely open as today.But now that I’ve learned a lot more about communism and capitalism, I would like to say this to him (whonow resides in Canada) if we had the chance to discuss communism again:

“But Singapore isn’t really the type of libertarian capitalism. It’s more of the authoritarian one. And you forgot tomention the fall of USSR, who was once the biggest communist country in the world.”

I would not go to any length to elaborate my ‘authoritarian capitalism’ point in this blog, because I couldsafely assume that ordinary Singaporeans and foreigners who have spent considerable time in that islandentity know what I am trying to say here.But as I’ve said a few days ago, that

“Communism is good, but democracy is better”

shows an opendefiance on my part against the youth’s mainstream nowadays. Despite my higher liking towardsdemocracy/capitalism, I’ve never thought communism as a bad influence on the society as a whole.

Let me tell you why.We all know that there exist poor examples of communist governments, such as in North Korea and Cubawhere the economy is very piteous. And there is always the restriction on freedom of speech incommunism, which is very detrimental to the maturity of the society.But there are good sides to communism too.You know, Indonesians are very phobic when it comes to communism. Whenever they hear anythingrelated to the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party), bloody riots would surely follow. The taints of theG30S-PKI still lingers thru this day that mentioning the word “PKI” in Indonesia these days is similar tomentioning the word “Satanism”.Now that’s an asinine mob mentality to be honest. Why should we Indonesians oppose communist partywhen in capitalist countries they have shown great virtues?Here are a few examples.First,

Japan

. Yes, Japan is a capitalist country, but do you know that the third largest political party afterLDP (Liberal Democratic Party) and DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) is the JCP (Japan Communist Party)?In fact, JCP is the only currently effective opposition in the Japanese parliament, because LDP and DPJ basically agree on most of their agenda.Second,

USA

. Despite being the most well known capitalist country in the world, the communist partythere, Communist Party of USA, had played a defining role in the U.S. labor movement from the 1920sthrough the 1940s and was well-known to have pursued intense anti-racist activity.Third,

China

. Of course, this largest economy in the world-to-be has its Communist Party rulingsupremely. And China is the best example of where communism doesn’t always have to be equalised with apoor economy.Most Indonesians may argue that Indonesia has the Pancasila state ideology wherein it was stated:

Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa

(Belief in One and Only God)

And since communism promotes atheism, it is thus not suitable for the Indonesian political atmosphere.Oh, really? In what way does being a communist makes one an atheist, honestly?The Islamic Republic of Pakistan also has its own communist party. And so does other Middle Easterncountries such as Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.As the former president of Indonesia Gus Dur once veritably stated, Indonesia's original 1945 constitutiondid not prohibit or even specifically mention communism