Coalition against change

Coalition against change

From Media Indonesia

The coalitions between the major political parties, in which the Golkar Party has recently formed an alliance with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) -- which is in addition to PDI-P's earlier partnership agreements with the United Development Party and the Prosperous Peace Party -- gives rise to fears of status-quo domination.

The old powers that they represent will likely hamper the (new) government if it tries to bring about fresh changes through various policies, which is even more the case if the change to be introduced is not in line with or even opposed to their interests.

If the candidates they support are elected to head the government for the 2004-2009 term, there will be greater worries because no significant change has taken place with the PDI-P in power these last few years, in stark contrast to our neighboring countries, who had to face the same late 1990s economic crisis, but have recovered completely.

Strategic state assets could continue to be sold off to foreign companies; delinquent conglomerate bosses and public wealth "looters" would probably remain free from legal actions, and corruption would likely continue at its current pace among public officials.

In the past five years, corruption grew from the value of Rp 16 trillion in 1998 to as high as around Rp 315 trillion in 2003, and that number will likely increase too if the same old status quo people remain in power.

V. SAMMY WONOK Jakarta