Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

Ms Noxolo Mgudlwa and Mr Olmo von Meijenfeldt, who are both based in Pretoria, South Africa, were accompanied by KID executive director Mr Sugeng Bahagijo and Mr Will Derks, policy officer for Asia at the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD). IDASA and KID are NIMD partners.

IDASA runs several programmes in South Africa and other African countries. One of these is the ‘initiative for Leadership and Democracy in Africa’ (iLEDA), a democracy training programme co-sponsored by NIMD and the Forum of African Former Heads of State and Government. Hence the interest in KID’s democracy schools by Ms Mgudlwa and Mr von Meijenfeldt, who function as iLEDA’s head of school and strategic manager, respectively.
 

Tangerang

The study tour first brought the guests from South Africa to the democracy school in Tangerang, relatively close to Indonesia’s capital Jakarta. They met with the implementers of the democracy school there, the local NGO Lembaga Perekat Demokrasi (‘Community Association for Democracy’) – a meeting during which both guests and hosts briefed each other about the ways they work, the challenges they face and the successes achieved so far. Next, Ms Mgudlwa and Mr von Meijenfeldt engaged with this year’s batch of participants in their class room. For more than an hour they provided an attentive audience with information about (South) Africa’s recent history and the consequences these have for the iLEDA programme they are running. This was concluded with a lively Q&A session to which language barriers constituted no impediment whatsoever.

Finally, the South African visitors met with members of the so-called Komite Komunitas or ‘KK’ (Community Committee). These KKs are groups of alumni of the democracy schools – per annum around 30 to 35 participants finish the course – that are active in their respective local communities as intermediaries between civil and political society and as agents of change. In this case, for instance, the KK-members highlighted the fact that they have meanwhile addressed the waste problem in their highly industrialized (and polluted) district of Tangerang, by bringing all relevant stakeholders to the negotiation table. Also they revealed their plans to set up a campaign to have their chairman elected as District Head in the upcoming elections for the executive, thereby trying to break the monopoly of political dynasties that have ruled Tangerang, and the province of which it is a part, for many years already.

Pangkep

Subsequently the district of Pangkep, one hour drive north of the provincial capital Makassar on the island of Sulawesi, was visited, where a similar exchange of information and ideas took place with participants in the local democracy school and its Implementing Agency, a local NGO called LAPAR (People’s Institute for Advocacy and Education). As the school in this district has only started to run this year, there are no alumni yet. But LAPAR is in touch with the KK in the district of Jeneponto, South of Makassar, where the democracy school ran for three years. Both districts face different challenges for democracy promotors, but what they may have in common is a penchant for relatively radical points of view among certain groups within the local Moslem community. Obviously, this will also have an impact on the work of local women’s groups, for which reason the visit to South Sulawesi was concluded with a special meeting with representatives of local women’s NGO’s. The discussion focused on the similarities and differences between empowerment of women in South Africa and Indonesia, and is perhaps best summarized by saying that in both countries elementary laws and regulations that warrant women’s rights seem to be in place, but that their implementation (by means of clear sanctions) is much better developed in South Africa.

World Movement for Democracy in Jakarta

After this study tour, the visit of the IDASA representatives to Indonesia will continue with meetings with KID about Schools collaboration and with participation in the 6th Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy, to be held in Jakarta between 11 and 14 April. IDASA, KID and NIMD will collectively hold a workshop during the Assembly that will focus on democracy education.