Golkar landslide victory a must: Amir Santoso

JAKARTA (JP): The dominant political group Golkar has to maintain its majority in the upcoming general election to ensure a strong government, an analyst said over the weekend.

Amir Santoso of the Jakarta-based University of Indonesia's School of Social and Political Sciences said that a strong government is needed as long as the development and poverty eradication programs are underway.

He admitted that the decision to make economic development the top priority had in some ways forced the government to disregard democracy.

"It's difficult to have to choose between welfare and democracy. But we have to help the majority of the country's population enjoy prosperity first, rather than encourage democracy which is only understood by a small number of wealthy urbanites," Amir said.

"The problem is how to build a clean government whose bureaucracy gives its best to serve the public," he said.

Golkar, under incumbent chairman Harmoko, has set its sights on winning 70.02 percent of the vote in the upcoming polls in order to extend its single majority to six in a row since 1971. It will take on the United Development Party (PPP) and the trouble-hit Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).

Almost 125 million of the country's population of 200 million are expected to go to the polling booths on May 29. A total of 425 seats at the House of Representatives are at stake in the upcoming general election.

Golkar's search for single majority has become the target of criticism by its minority rivals who have repeatedly complained about irregularities in the previous elections.

The single majority has enabled Golkar to exclude its two rivals from the cabinet since 1978.

Amir said that Indonesia should emulate development programs run by its Southeast Asian neighbors, such as Singapore and Malaysia, whose political systems are about the same as Indonesia's.

"People in many countries that have harvested development efforts do not ask too much for democratic freedom as long as their governments can be trusted," he said.

He said the government would risk losing too much time, not to mention the foreseeable conflicts, if it leaves people to pursue freedom.

"We may need 400 years to be on par with the United States in terms of income per capita. Because we want a shortcut en route to the goals, we need a firm government to manage the heterogeneous people," he said.

Indonesia's income per capita is estimated at US$1,200, with economic growth estimated at between 7 percent and 8 percent a year.

Amir said Indonesian bureaucracy has grown so strong that it is immune from social control. "Bureaucracy tends to be conservative and arrogant when it deals with the public to whom it should have served," he said.

The bureaucracy also lacks quality human resources able to accommodate people's rising demands.

People commonly complain about inefficiency, corruption and political liability of the bureaucracy, he said.

Amir said that people's accumulated animosity against the bureaucracy might trigger riots which have repeatedly hit the country since last year. (amd)