Political differentiation key to reforms<\/p>\n
By Aleksius Jemadu<\/p>\n
BANDUNG (JP): Many political analysts would agree with Mochtar
\nPabottingi, a senior researcher at the Indonesian Institute of
\nSciences, who suggested that the Indonesian political system
\nreally needs reforms after decades of obsession with state-led
\npolitical stability.<\/p>\n
Mochtar argued that there was a danger in the government's
\ninsistence to resist change since such an attitude could lead to
\na \"bloody\" conflict between those seeking to maintain the status
\nquo and groups who wanted to see change. It was also argued that
\ndemocracy was political rationality par excellence (The Jakarta
\nPost, Nov. 26, 1997).<\/p>\n
If building a political system capable of bridging the will of
\nthe people and the process of governance can be viewed as an
\nimportant goal of democracy, then the empowerment of the
\nlegislative body would be a conditio sine qua non.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the present position of our legislative body seems
\nto be subordinated to the domination of the executive power. It
\nis equally important to note that it is always the executive
\npower which takes the initiative in producing new laws.<\/p>\n
In some cases decrees that were created by the executive power
\nturned out to be in contradiction to higher legal norms. The
\ndomination of the executive power has led to frequent violation
\nof the hierarchy of legal norms.<\/p>\n
The most critical aim of empowering the legislative body is
\nhow to increase its capacity to cope with people's demands and to
\ncommunicate those demands with the executive power. The
\nestablishment of modern political institutions is one thing. How
\nthese political institutions function properly and interact
\ncreatively is quite another thing.<\/p>\n
Therefore, it can be argued that the weak position of the
\nlegislative body is not only related to the quality of this
\npolitical institution, but also to the level of political
\ndifferentiation in our political system.<\/p>\n
In his description of political aspects of modernization,
\nJames Coleman (1968) developed a model which makes a link between
\nthree concepts: differentiation, equality and capacity.<\/p>\n
Differentiation can be understood as \"the process of
\nprogressive separation and specialization of roles and
\ninstitutional spheres in the political system\".<\/p>\n
The differentiation process will produce greater functional
\nspecialization, more structural complexity, and a higher degree
\nof interdependence of political institutions.<\/p>\n
The second key concept is equality which is viewed by Coleman
\nas the ethos of political modernization. This concept includes a
\nnotion of universal adult citizenship, the prevalence of
\nuniversalistic legal notes in the government's relations with the
\ncitizenry, the predominance of achievement criteria in the
\nrecruitment and allocation of political and administrative roles,
\nand popular involvement in the political system.<\/p>\n
According to Coleman the growth of political capacity of the
\nsystem is very much determined by the extent to which the
\nprinciples of differentiation and equality have been practiced.<\/p>\n
A political system can be said to have a high capacity if it
\ncan increase the scope of several political functions.<\/p>\n
These include scale of political community, efficacy of the
\nimplementation of political decisions, penetrative power of
\ncentral government institutions, comprehensive aggregation of
\ninterests by political associations, institutionalization of
\npolitical organization and procedure, problem solving
\ncapabilities, ability to sustain new political demand and
\norganization.<\/p>\n
By using this model we can make a critical assessment over the
\ncapacity of our legislative body.<\/p>\n
As regards the role of the People's House of Representatives
\n(DPR) there have been a lot of complaints that it cannot perform
\nits functions in an effective way.<\/p>\n
Certain members of the House do have the courage to criticize
\ngovernment policies but the House as a whole remains very much
\nembedded in the pervasive dominance of an undemocratic political
\nculture which endorses paternalistic behavior and self-imposed
\nrestriction.<\/p>\n
Instead of undertaking a serious debate on a critical policy
\nissue, consensus is generally believed to be the best way in
\ndecision-making. Risk aversion seems to be a dominant pattern of
\nbehavior among members of parliament.<\/p>\n
Open opposition to policies or active criticism of decisions
\nbeing imposed from the ruling power are seen as socially
\nincorrect and politically unethical.<\/p>\n
It would be no exaggeration to suggest that as long as such
\nfeudalistic behavior prevails, there can never be any empowerment
\nof the legislative body.<\/p>\n
Dealing with the current crisis that hits the overall
\nstructure of our national economy will not be an easy task for
\nthe government. The executive branch of the government needs a
\nproactive and critical parliament so that the executive officials
\nmight not pursue ill-designed policies.<\/p>\n
Many big problems in this country could have been avoided had
\nthe parliament been allowed to be more critical over certain
\ngovernment policies.<\/p>\n
It is high time now to reconsider whether or not there is a
\nconstitutionally acceptable justification for the recalling of
\nDPR members who opposed government standard policies in certain
\nareas.<\/p>\n
Fear of being recalled could discourage members of parliament
\nfrom using their constitutionally-sanctioned rights to control
\nthe performance of the executive power.<\/p>\n
It is worth noting that in this era of globalization the
\ngovernment's capacity to cope with global challenges is limited.
\nTherefore, the government needs a capable and reliable
\nlegislative counterpart in order to prevent the nation from
\nfalling into political and economic fiasco.<\/p>\n
Without such structural differentiation Indonesian democracy
\nwould appear to be going nowhere.<\/p>\n
The writer is the director of Parahyangan Center for
\nInternational Studies at UNPAR, Bandung. He holds a Ph.D in
\nsocial sciences from KU Leuven, Belgium.<\/p>",
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