Bintang's challenges are also ours<\/p>\n
Sacked legislator Sri Bintang Pamungkas who faces a four-year
\njail term for slandering President Soeharto shook the political
\nlandscape recently when he set up a new political party.
\nPolitical scientist Mochtar Pabottingi examines the event.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Only a handful of Indonesians could emulate the
\ncourage, energy and vision of Sri Bintang Pamungkas in
\ncontemporary Indonesian politics.<\/p>\n
Since five or six years ago, he has not only expressed his
\nideas with rare frankness and clarity, but followed them up with
\nconcrete actions.<\/p>\n
Undeterred by personal harassment, dismissal from the House of
\nRepresentatives and recent trial and conviction for defaming
\nPresident Soeharto, over a week ago he established the Indonesian
\nDemocratic Union Party (PUDI).<\/p>\n
What undergird his political struggle? Some people explain
\nBintang's phenomenon as symptomatic of psychological problems,
\ninduced by an unhappy childhood. Some explain his outspokenness
\nas a sign of political immaturity, which borders on insanity.<\/p>\n
These explanations rule out politics as virtuous, direct,
\nprincipled and essential. They stem from a conflicting
\nunderstanding of politics, that as something shallow, trick-or-
\ntreat like, unprincipled and inessential. Or they constitute a
\nway of hiding one's own debility within or complicity with the
\nreigning politics.<\/p>\n
Bintang would not do all that he has done so far without a
\nvirtuous, direct, principled and essential way of understanding
\npolitics. In that sense, he belongs to the company of Mochtar
\nLubis, Deliar Noer, Ali Sadikin, Adnan Buyung Nasution,
\nAbdurrahman Wahid, Rahman Tolleng and others. Like these figures,
\nhe has captured the undemocratic essence of the New Order's
\npolitics and come up with a virtuous, direct, principled and
\nessential response to it.<\/p>\n
The government has accused Bintang's latest action of founding
\nPUDI as unconstitutional. However, there is actually no law that
\nexplicitly prohibits people from establishing new political
\nparties. All 18 articles of the 1985 law are carefully worded and
\ndo not specifically forbid such an action, for to do so would be
\nin direct violation of the 1945 Constitution.<\/p>\n
The government's accusation could therefore backfire. The more
\nthe authorities pursue this accusation, the more they pose an
\neven more serious question as to the constitutionality of many of
\nthe New Order's own rules and practices in politics.<\/p>\n
As a matter of fact, the most significant consequence of
\nBintang's move is not so much the creation of his new party as
\nthe diffusion among average Indonesians of a strong consciousness
\nabout the state of the constitutionality of the New Order's
\npolitical format.<\/p>\n
As with the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP),
\nthe more the bureaucracy suppresses the new party, the more it
\nwill disclose things it actually wants concealed. In other words,
\nas soon as the bureaucracy raises questions about PUDI's
\nconstitutionality, it invites serious reverse questioning about
\nthe constitutionality of its own political edifice.<\/p>\n
On this count, Bintang has nothing to lose. Based as it is on
\nan emergency situation, which has long been overdue, a fair
\ndebate on the constitutionality of the New Order's political
\nformat is the last thing the government wants.<\/p>\n
Another significant issue of PUDI would be the road it tries
\nto pave towards a new political consensus and agreements, not
\nbetween society and the state but between societal political
\ngroups themselves.<\/p>\n
Here, again, Bintang strikes at the right core. Indonesia's
\ndevious road to democracy is equally a function of the lack of
\nenlightenment within the corpus of the ruling elite and the
\ninability of the country's forces of democracy to come to
\nconstructive terms among each other.<\/p>\n
But, for three reasons, Bintang's chance for success is rather
\ndismal on the latter count.<\/p>\n
First, the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) would find PUDI a
\nduplication of its reason for being. Second, the New Order -- in
\nspite of its claim to have simplified and unified formerly
\ndisparate political parties -- continues to effectively play a
\nkind of divide-and-rule game. Third, some vital minority-majority
\ndivide worsened during the first 25 years of the New Order's
\nrule, and it takes time for both parties to learn from the grave
\ndisadvantages of dishonesty and distrust in politics.<\/p>\n
At the moment what Bintang needs is a concerted action and an
\nability to overcome his image as a lone, somewhat proud fighter.<\/p>\n
To be sure, Bintang's struggle and challenges are also ours.<\/p>\n
The writer is head of the Center of Research and Development
\nof Politics and Area Studies at the Indonesian Institute of
\nSciences.<\/p>",
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