REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – Similarities here and differences there, may explain the political transition in Indonesia and Egypt. An obvious difference between the two is military role during the process, as concluded in public seminar on ‘Comparing Political Transition in Egypt and Indonesia’ in Jakarta, recently. Some representatives of Egyptian organizations –namely Cairo Center for the Culture of Democracy (CCCD), Egyptian Democratic Academy, and Danish-Egyptian Dialog Institute- attended the event.

According to the Head of CCCD, Abdul-Monem Mohamed Ibrahim al-Mashat, the Egypt revolution in February 2011 was triggered by the lack of leadership and disparities on politics and economics. The administration exercised the exclusive and nontransparent policies. “There was a big gap in democracy,” he said.

Egyptian revolution was started on January 25, 2011. Egyptian protesters were doing sit-in for 18 days in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. After leading for 30 years, Husni Mubarak was brought down. The opposition Muslim Brotherhood then involved in open politics and won the biggest bloc in a newly elected parliament through its political wing, Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).

The Constitutional Law Lecturer from Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Fajrul Falaakh, said, there were some similarities between Egyptian and Indonesian political transition. After the fall of Soeharto in May 1998, the power was given to the vice president. The role of military in parliament was diminished in 1999 and vanished in 2004.

However, the supporters of old regime were still exist, as happening in Egypt today. Such power was tainted not only by blocking the people participation and access to information but also corruption and money politics. Yet, unlike Egyptian, Indonesian political transitions in 1998 occurred without direct involvement from the military.

The General Secretary of Indonesian Community for Democracy (KID), Ratih Hardjono, said, KID holds this public seminar to help Egypt understand the democratization process in Indonesia. “They want to learn about Indonesian democracy,” he said.

Indonesia, as Egypt, is a country with biggest Muslim population. As opposed to the public opinion, Indonesia successfully proves that Islam can walk side by side with democracy.

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