Expedient and comprehensive

Expediency is rarely a central issue in our political democracy. Democracy is about allowing the widest participation of the people in the nation's political decision-making process; so, more often than not, the need for expediency is subordinated in order to absorb or accommodate as much as possible the various political aspirations that exist in society.

An exception, however, must be made with the ongoing debate on two political bills in the House of Representatives, because the bills on political parties and on general elections are the instruments by which we will elect our government leaders in 2004.

These and two other bills still being drafted by the government -- on direct presidential election and on the composition of the House of Representatives and the People's Consultative Assembly -- must be completed and enacted soon, if the nation is to hold the general elections on time.

Expediency is important because the General Elections Commission (KPU), along with the government, have to make all the necessary preparations to ensure smooth elections in 2004. Their tasks range from conducting voters' registration, to setting up regional electoral commissions, to processing the nominations of candidates, and a host of other logistical issues. KPU has warned that it needs at least two years to make the preparations.

The consequence of delaying or postponing the 2004 election could be grave: It could plunge the nation into a constitutional crisis. The mandate given by the people to current members of the House and President Megawati Soekarnoputri expires in October 2004, and our constitution does not provide for an extension of the mandate. Even if it did, it is not something that we will want to entertain. When their mandate ends, the administration should make way for the newly elected representatives. It's as simple as that.

The Constitution, amended in August to include the direct presidential election, envisions a nation far more democratically governed than we have ever been since our independence in 1945. Sadly, this vision has not been matched by the collective action of our elected politicians, who have been working on the legislations to achieve the goal of a more democratic Indonesia.

The House is already falling behind in its schedule in deliberating the political bills. After failing to endorse the bills in the current sitting session (ending Thursday), the House now expects to complete the process in March at the earliest. Such a lack of expediency is jeopardizing the chances of Indonesia holding its next general elections in 2004 as mandated by the amended constitution.

Lack of expediency is not the only problem. The debate over the two existing political bills in the House is already going in the wrong direction, the deliberations heavily loaded with the self-interests of those major political parties who control the House.

Characteristically, the major parties are trying to minimize the number of political parties allowed in the electoral contest. In particular, they are conspiring to exclude many of the new emerging parties hoping to offer alternatives to the ruling political parties. Even among the major parties, they bicker about the content of the bills as they seek to ensure the new legislations favor their own positions in 2004.

There are even speculations that the major parties are intentionally slowing down the deliberation process, thus forcing the nation either to organize the elections based on the 1999 legislations, or to extend their mandate beyond 2004.

It is no wonder that the deliberations of the bills have made little progress since they were submitted by the government in May. Given the huge gaps that exist in the House, even the March deadline now looks ambitious.

This goes to show that even a democratically elected House, such as the current House, is no guarantee that the nation would be governed in a democratic fashion. The previous House was hardly the result of a democratic election, but given the spirit of reform that was unleashed in 1999, it was able to come up with a set of legislations that was both comprehensive and expedient enough for the nation to hold the elections in 1999. Lest we forget, that was also Indonesia's first ever democratic elections in over four decades.

The sad reality is that those whom the nation elected in 1999 are now betraying the very spirit and ideals of reform. Their deliberations of the political bills are neither expedient, nor all-encompassing.