Glut of parties, most with emotional appeal

Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The surge in the number of political parties -- now around 180 -- may signal a thriving democracy but analysts warned on Friday new parties catered more to the political illiterate and failed to meet the people's diverse needs.

Over the past few months new parties have sprung up, hoping to win seats in the legislature in the 2004 general elections.

New parties abound with about 180 having submitted their registration forms to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.

Several politicians and analysts have said that the ideal number was 10, reasoning it would make for a stronger opposition.

More than 40 parties contested the 1999 election, many of whom have since folded.

The numbers of parties signing up to contest the elections are likely to plunge under the proposed election bill.

The draft law, being debated by the House of Representatives, stipulates that a party must have branches in at least 20 of the 30 provinces to be eligible for the elections.

It must also have executive boards in two-thirds of the number of regencies or cities in one province.

These requirements should ensure that only serious parties fight the election. Once they do, the government will have to partly subsidize their campaign activities.

General Election Commission (KPU) member Imam Prasodjo said the restriction should not choke off channels for the public's aspirations.

The sociologist said the rise of new parties also reflected Indonesia's diverse society.

"It shows that current political parties have failed to accommodate the public's aspirations," he said.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), which won the 1999 elections with 34 percent of the vote, has seen a number of defections among its top members, some of whom decided to set up a new party altogether.

Last Wednesday, PDI Perjuangan dissident Eros Djarot launched the Bung Karno Nationalist Party (PNBK). Bung Karno refers to the name of Indonesia's founding-father Soekarno.

Earlier this year, another PDI Perjuangan member, Dimyati Hartono, established the Indonesian Motherland Party (PITA).

Analysts predicted splinter parties like PNBK and PITA would likely try to woo members from their original parties to join them.

But a senior party member of PDI Perjuangan, Mochtar Buchori, dismissed such a move would happen to his party.

He said PNBK was simply too old fashioned and its presence was more an urban phenomenon with little or no support among the grassroots levels.

Political analyst Syamsuddin Harris of the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) agreed, saying the reference to Soekarno might be appealing yet outdated.

"I am afraid the people behind these parties use them as a vehicle to climb the ladder of power," Syamsuddin said.

He added that many still believed the shortcut for a party to raise to power was by having a strong figure standing behind it.

This is true because people know voters here care more about the person than the ideas behind a party, he said.

Analysts have said because of a lack of political education, few voters showed interest in a party's vision and programs.

Instead, they said, parties were chosen based more on primordial sentiments with the help of a prominent figure who could lead.

Consequently, 50 years after the country's first general election in 1955, parties continue to polarize along the lines of nationalism and religion.

Today the two groups were divided each into traditionalists and modernists as well, Syamsuddin said.

Existing parties however are not been much different from their newer peers. PDI Perjuangan enjoys broad support which many say comes mainly from the fact that chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri was the symbol of oppression during the Soeharto regime.

Her father, Soekarno, was also Indonesia's first president whose legacy continues to wield powerful influence among the people three decades after his death.

Another example is the Golkar Party, which attributes its political clout to its close ties with former president Soeharto. He never led the party, but was a member of its board of patrons.

Newer parties like the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) trace their success to their links with the country's two largest Muslim organizations and their leaders.

According to Syamsuddin, this trend will take at least another two to three more elections, or 15 years, before there were enough critical voters for more sophisticated parties to emerge. "What we're seeing here is a phase in democracy."