Ahmad Ali of PSI Deems Surya Paloh's Proposal of 7 Per Cent Parliamentary Threshold Contrary to Spirit of National Reform

PANDEGLANG, KOMPAS.com – Ahmad Ali, daily chairman of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), has criticised the proposal to raise the parliamentary threshold to 7 per cent, which has been voiced by the National Democratic Party (Nasdem), arguing it contradicts the spirit of struggle that has guided the party since the Reform era.

“What I regret is that this proposal comes from a party like Nasdem, which was born from the womb of Reform, and which from the outset spoke about our collective spirit, about how important it is that a large nation like Indonesia is built together,” said Ali in Pandeglang, Banten, on Thursday evening (26 February 2026).

Ali emphasised that PSI neither opposes nor supports any specific figure for the parliamentary threshold. He noted that his party was designed from the outset to be adaptive to various possible regulations, including if the threshold were raised from 4 per cent to 7 per cent.

However, according to Ali, if the parliamentary threshold is raised to 7 per cent, only around three to five parties would gain parliamentary representation. He argued that such a condition would differ from the spirit of political openness following the Reform era, which provided broader space for many parties to be represented in parliament, unlike the New Order period.

“Of course this would contradict the spirit of collective effort that is always championed by the party, particularly by Pak Surya Paloh, who has been my political mentor. If asked for my view, the spirit of Reform should become our reference point for creating such regulations,” he added.

“This is being deliberated by colleagues in the House of Representatives, by the parliamentary factions, certainly with Commission II. I am leaving it to them for now to discuss together with the other faction leaders,” said Paloh at the Nasdem party headquarters in central Jakarta on Saturday (21 February 2026).

Paloh argued that raising the parliamentary threshold is necessary to simplify the multiparty system into a “selected party” system to make the implementation of democracy more effective. “Nasdem thinks that from a multiparty system, if we could transform into a selected party system, that would be far more effective for implementing the benefits of the freedom of democracy that we have,” he said.

He also argued that current democratic practice overemphasises the large number of political parties rather than their quality. The debate over changing the parliamentary threshold has emerged ahead of the discussion of amendments to the Electoral Law in the House of Representatives. The size of the parliamentary threshold figure is one of the issues that will be examined, as it relates to the design of the party system and the composition of parties in parliament.