House should act as 'opposition': Scholar<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): A prominent political scholar dismissed
\nyesterday as \"absolutely irrelevant\" the hope for opposition
\nparties to emerge in Indonesian.<\/p>\n
Ichlasul Amal of Gadjah Mada University said Indonesia cannot
\nhave an opposition party because it adopts the presidential
\nsystem of government.<\/p>\n
\"Under the system, the 'opposition' force is the House of
\nRepresentatives as a whole, not the political parties that make
\nit up,\" he told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Amal was responding to Gen. (ret) Soemitro's proposal for the
\nestablishment of \"loyal opposition parties\" which can balance the
\noverly powerful executive branch of the bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
Soemitro, a former chief of the defunct Internal Security
\nAgency, said the recent mushrooming of mass organizations shows
\nthat Indonesian political parties have failed to defend the
\ninterests of the masses.<\/p>\n
He recalled that in the last years of Sukarno presidency in
\nthe mid 1960s, the military sponsored the establishment of Golkar
\nto channel people's wishes and criticism of the government.<\/p>\n
If Indonesia had \"loyal\" opposition forces, Soemitro argued,
\norganizations like the Indonesian National Unity and the National
\nBrotherhood Foundation would not have necessarily come into
\nbeing.<\/p>\n
Amal, however, is opposed to the idea of having an institution
\nlike Golkar because the nature of people's demands at present is
\ndifferent from that in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
\"I doubt that problems that arise nowadays can be handled by
\nan institution such as Golkar,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Separately, political observer Riswandha Imawan said it would
\nbe futile to expect the Indonesian Democratic Party and the
\nUnited Development Party to check the government like opposition
\nparties do.<\/p>\n
\"This (inability to control the government) is largely because
\nthe prevailing laws severely limit their room to maneuver,\"
\nRiswandha said.<\/p>\n
He stressed that Indonesia needs effective opposition forces.
\nThe opposition, he said, may come from new organizations, such as
\nintellectual associations. (har\/pan)<\/p>",
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