Commenting on Yusril's Proposal, PSI: Simplifying Parliament Not Through Threshold
JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Daily Chairman of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) Ahmad Ali responded to the proposal by Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional Services Yusril Ihza Mahendra regarding the setting of the parliamentary threshold adjusted to the number of DPR board instruments (commissions).
According to Ali, efforts to simplify the number of parties in parliament do not have to be done by raising the threshold, but can also be through tightening the requirements for forming factions.
He assessed that setting the threshold actually only serves as a tool to obstruct certain parties, causing the loss of millions of people’s votes.
“If the spirit is to simplify, then there is no need to go through setting the parliamentary threshold. Because there are many ways that can be done. One of them is the requirements for forming a faction,” said Ali when contacted by Kompas.com on Monday (4/5/2026).
If the 2024-2029 DPR has 13 commissions, then the minimum requirement for forming one faction is 13 seats.
“Let’s say the requirement for forming one faction is at least the same number as the commissions in the DPR. So if a party does not have enough 13 seats, because there are currently 13 commissions in the DPR, then it may combine votes or seats to form one faction. It could be four parties, five parties, because the principle in the DPR is not in the name of the party, but in the name of the faction,” he explained.
“Well, so for parties that already meet the requirements, they form a faction automatically. For parties that do not meet it, please make a combined faction,” he said.
Ali dismissed the notion that questions the effectiveness of parliament if there are too many parties in parliament. Because later in the DPR, it will not represent parties, but factions.
“So it is not quite right to say that for simplification or to reduce noise, because in the DPR there are no political parties again I repeat, what exists are factions, represented by factions. If so, then one faction can be filled by several political parties,” he stated.
“Look at the current DPRD. In the DPRD, does noise occur? There is none. Actually, practices like this have been regulated by the government in the Regency and Provincial DPRD,” he said.
“The requirement for forming a faction consists of the number of commissions that exist. The aim is so that each faction can place its members in each commission,” he added.
He exemplified the case of PPP in the last election, where the votes of the people who voted for that party were instead distributed to other parties because it did not pass the threshold.
“Like yesterday the votes (PPP) that did not pass to parliament, the party that benefited from it was NasDem. How do you think the people who voted for PPP feel but must be redirected to NasDem Party,” said Ali.