Jakarta – Vice President Jusuf Kalla and academics debated the relationship between democracy and the economy, with Kalla saying prosperity, not democracy, should be the country's ultimate goal.

"We have to enforce democracy because that is the consensus in the country, with the aim of improving people's welfare," the Vice President said during a seminar organized by the Indonesian Journalists Union to mark the group's third anniversary here Tuesday.

Kalla said, however, that democracy was only a tool, not the goal. "We do not necessarily have to follow the United States, which glorifies democracy as an objective. America has reached a level of prosperity that allows it to focus on promoting democracy," he said.

Indonesia, he said, still has much work to do in improving the living standards of all citizens.

Dubbed the world's third largest democracy, Indonesia is still plagued by poverty, with 16.6 percent of the country's people living below the poverty line, according to official data.

During former president Soeharto's authoritarian New Order regime, which came to an end in 1998, Indonesia was touted as an Asian economic miracle due to its high growth rates.

Another speaker at the seminar, Azyumardi Azra of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, said democracy was the best political system for the country, even though it had yet to generate prosperity for all.

"Although democracy has several weaknesses, compared to other political systems, such as religious-based systems, it is the best for our country," said Azyumardi, who is also deputy secretary to Kalla.

Azyumardi said, however, that democracy as so far practiced in Indonesia had been hugely expensive. He said large amounts of money had been spent on political campaigns and infrastructure for general elections, in addition to the cash used "to buy votes or support".

Franz Magnis-Suseno, a professor at the Driyarkara School of Philosophy, told the seminar it would take a long time for Indonesia to "harvest" the rewards of democracy. "We have to make democracy a culture, while it apparently still remains a system so far. And the process may take a long time," said Magnis.

National Mandate Party politician Dradjad Wibowo said democracy in the country had so far been a failure, as it had not allowed for the equal distribution of economic resources.

"Our economic condition is no different from conditions before the start of the 1998 reform movement," Dradjad, an economist, told the seminar.

He said economic resources continued to be controlled by a small group of people. "I can say that we still have the same structure, only the people benefiting from that structure have changed," he said.

"We used to know that Om Liem (business tycoon Sudono Salim) was the richest man in the country. Now, we have Aburizal Bakrie," he said. Aburizal, the coordinating minister for the people's welfare, was named by a magazine as the richest man in the country last year.

Salim, who left Indonesia following the 1998 reform movement, was closely connected with the regime of former president Soeharto. Dradjad said people could not simply rely on democracy to improve their lives economically, but needed a government in place that was able to adopt the necessary economic policies.

"The government must be able to adopt economic policies that will close the gap between the poor and the rich," he said. (lln)