A cyclist rides past a mural that calls on people to reject vote-buying in Surakarta, Central Java.
THE development of democracy is inevitably demanded of governments in this modern era, while on the other hand, the spirit of democracy often creates vertical and horizontal conflicts that disrupt peace, order and security in a country.
In an old article entitled “Inte-grative Revolution, Primordial Sentiments and Civil Politics in the New States”, Clifford Geertz discussed the symptoms of distortion in a democratic environment such as those Indonesia faces nowadays. Geertz noted the dilemma new democracies often faced because they were required to build two things at once – even though they often conflicted – namely democracy and integration.
