Concern for good of the public needed to justify politics

Concern for good of the public needed to justify politics

Ignas Kleden, The Center for East, Indonesian Affairs (CEIA),
Jakarta

It is an age-old truism that politics has something to do with
power; but this is only half the truth. The fact that someone --
the president for example -- is entitled to such great power over
others can only be understood and justified if the power given to
him or her is used for the common good of as many citizens as
possible.

This is why a concern for public interest and the common good
is another constituent element of politics. Without the
entitlement and the wielding of power, politics cannot be
exercised; and without a serious concern for public interest and
the common good, politics cannot be justified.

Similarly, the state feels entitled to monopolize the use of
force. It is believed that the forces at the state's disposal
will be used to compel law enforcement, and that force will be
used to protect the state and the citizens from possible violence
by a third party or another state.

Yet, while power is so enchanting and overwhelming, the public
interest and the common good are usually ignored.

The army and the police, who are also more aware of their
right to use force and to use weapons, are also forgetful of
their duty to protect people and to provide them with security.

This asymmetric perception of politics is all the more true
for Indonesia. The agenda and actions of politicians here show
that their main business -- and their most important
preoccupation -- is nothing but an exercise in the attainment,
the distribution and the maximization of their power.

All political parties, big and small, are engaged in their
preparations for the general elections, the electoral threshold,
the financing of political campaigns, the possible formation of
party coalitions, and the nomination of prospective candidates
for the presidency and the House of Representatives.

No mention has been made by any political party as to how it
envisages the realization of the common good and the public
interest and how this will be achieved. Major parties, such as
the Indonesian Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the Golkar
Party and the United Development Party (PPP), say very little or
not even a single word about their determination, strategies and
methods to fight the proliferation of corruption and other
malpractices within the bureaucracy, their ideas on what should
be done to solve the problem of increasing unemployment, and
their ideas and plans regarding economic recovery.

Despite the very obvious and threatening environmental
destruction, there is a lack of imagination among those
politically interested people to found a political party
comparable to the Green Party in more developed countries.

Surprisingly, although there are a great number of people
living below the poverty line -- at least 47.9 million according
to the 2002 report of the Ministry of Health -- and despite so
many minority groups, there has been no serious initiative to
establish a political party which concentrates on social-
democratic programs.

Yet, every political party repeatedly talks about the
aspirations and the development of the people, without the
smallest hint as to their willingness or ability to translate the
people's interests into distinct priorities in various sectors.

How is the public interest reflected and represented in
housing, public transportation, education, industry, trade,
business and economy, or political education? Is it in the
interest of the people that private luxury cars dominate the
city's main streets instead of public transportation vehicles?
How is public interest incorporated into national education if
fees are so high that education is affordable only to limited
societal groups?

Why are golf courses everywhere, while there is hardly space
for playgrounds or public parks? Are small-scale industries and
various handicraft cottage industries given priorities and
incentives? Why are the prices for agricultural products fixed,
while those for industrial goods are not?

Currently, there are more than 200 registered political
parties in Indonesia, but this does not necessarily imply that
there are more than 200 or more groupings interested in the
common good.

This figure only indicates an increasing number of people
participating in power politics. Substantial debates are rarely
heard among political parties about their plans and programs for
poverty alleviation, their priorities in regional autonomy, or
their ideas for the improvement and reform of national education.

In more developed democratic countries, the competition among
contending political parties is carried out through the
introduction and the promotion of their political programs.
People vote for parties with political programs that correspond
best to the needs of the voters.

In Indonesia, it is a sociological enigma as to why and on
what basis people vote for one party instead of another, despite
the fact that political programs are not the main priority of
most parties. What has become the means of political persuasion
and political appeal in such a case?

The absence of substantial programs from political parties is
one of the main reasons the tendency toward internal divisions
within parties is far greater than their ability to establish an
internal consolidation. What is now happening within the PDI
Perjuangan is also occurring within the PKB, the PPP and within
the former ruling party, Golkar.

Party members' lack of concern about the public interest has
created a political vacuum that has been filled by opportunity:
an opportunity that anyone who has some political influence is
tempted to use -- to take advantage of their party as a means to
pursue individual interests or the interest of a particular
faction.

It can certainly be fruitful if contending arguments and
discourses are pursued within the scope of a party's mission and
within the framework of their programs. However, each faction
within a party generally endeavors to pursue its own agenda,
instead of participating in the party's efforts to find the best
possible way to realize their programs.

Thus, political parties here do not yet represent institution
building in the political sector. There are no common programs
nor ideals that function as a cohesive binding force to unite
party members, and there are no common values that define a
party.

The official number of registered political parties in
Indonesia is now 234, of which 30 are supposedly eligible to
contend in the general elections. We have to wait and see whether
the smaller parties that do not pass the electoral threshold are
willing and ready to sacrifice their own interests in order to
encourage political institution building in Indonesia by joining
the bigger ones.

Yet, this is very unlikely, because the absence of substantial
programs in many of the bigger parties would make it very
difficult for the smaller ones to assess their political goals in
relation to one party or another. The tragedy is that the people
are inclined to believe that pursuing one's own interest is safer
and longer-lasting than trying to push for a common good that
would benefit all, without exception.

By this point, though, the miserable tragedy has turned into a
bad comedy.