No real change in Jakarta politics

John McBeth, The Straits Times, Asia News Network, Singapore

National Mandate Party (PAN) legislator Alvin Lie is a 44-year-old paragliding enthusiast with long hair and an idealistic approach to politics. But after winning election in his Central Java hometown of Semarang in 1999 and again last year, he is now ready to call it quits.

"I'm afraid we're back-tracking," he declares. "We (civilian politicians) have been given the chance and we've failed to show we are the best people to run the country."

That is a disturbing indictment from someone who is more than just a member of a new generation that Indonesians had hoped would transform the country's political culture. Lie, an Indonesian-Chinese entrepreneur, has stuck to a party with a clearly identified Islamic character through difficult times -- even when its charismatic leader, Amien Rais, seemed bent on nudging it away from its centrist alignment (which was what attracted Lie in the first place). But it is easy to see why he is disillusioned.

The recently concluded season of national political party conventions, with its overwhelming emphasis on personality over policy platform, has shown only too clearly that most political parties have failed to heed the message sent by voters at last year's parliamentary elections. That message seemed simple enough: It is time to grow up and smell the coffee.

Parties, in general, appear oblivious to the fact that they have fallen far short of the new level of maturity demonstrated by the electorate after seven years of decentralization and democratic experimentation. In rejecting many of the established parties, voters for the first time largely ignored the proffered advice of village and religious leaders and made their own choices. The result was a significant departure from old voting habits.

Only Golkar appears to have come out of its congress seemingly unscathed, with former chairman Akbar Tanjung making a dignified exit after his defeat at the hands of Vice-President Jusuf Kalla, and the party now well-placed to dominate next month's first direct elections for governors, district chiefs and mayors.

Although there have been grumblings over the way Jusuf has stocked the central executive board with a disproportionate number of home-island Sulawesi allies, he has brought a different corporate-type style to the leadership. Where party meetings once dragged on into the early morning, they are now over in a couple of hours.

Still there has been little sign of the reforms needed if Golkar is to emulate the achievements of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai Party, which won a stunning majority in Thailand's last elections on the back of clearly enunciated policies and promises.

Jusuf appears to understand what has to be done, judging by a recent speech to 1,500 party cadres. But reform-minded members talk resignedly about a sense of deja vu in the period since the December congress.

Golkar aside, most of the other big parties are embroiled in conflict, triggered in some cases by changes in party rules by incumbent leaders. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is in turmoil after chairman and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri's victory over 12 rebellious senior members, including oil magnate Arifin Panigoro and former state enterprises minister Laksamana Sukardi. Most of the self-styled reformists had been among her closest allies, but their disaffection hardly came as any real surprise after the setbacks the party suffered in last year's elections.

In Megawati's case, it has come down to her stubborn refusal to accept responsibility for the PDI-P's decline or to surrender the special powers she was given at the 2000 congress which allowed her to make any decision "necessary for the party's success".

The National Awakening Party has also yet to solve a bitter internal conflict. That reached a climax at last month's national congress when party patron and former president Abdurrahman Wahid oversaw the election of Muhaimin Iskandar as the new chairman in place of Alwi Shihab. Once a close Wahid ally, Alwi and former secretary-general Syaifullah Jusuf were both suspended last year after accepting posts in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Cabinet. Both are now challenging the legality of the congress proceedings in the courts.

The United Development Party has succeeded in cooling down the prolonged confrontation between party leader Hamzah Haz's central executive board and a separate group. But the core problem remains. The rebels, unhappy with his leadership, want the party to hold another national congress this year. Hamzah, Megawati's lackluster former vice-president, is unlikely to budge from the 2007 schedule decided on at the party's 2002 congress.

A recent study by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy found Indonesia's multiparty political system has not significantly contributed to regional autonomy and that politicians continue to ignore their constituents' demands and aspirations. It said that while voters now have far more parties to choose from -- 48 in the 1999 elections and 24 last year -- the performance of regional assemblies is no better than it was under former president Soeharto's New Order regime.

Researchers note that most parties, with the notable exception of the Muslim-orientated Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS), are facing a crisis of legitimacy because they have failed to provide adequate space for public participation. "This means that there is no mechanism for the public to control the political and moral behavior of councilors and the performance of political parties in the local parliaments," the study notes.

The result, says Lie, is a gradual disillusionment with politicians in general from a rural electorate that is smarter and wiser. "There is little confidence in the current process," he points out. "Politicians aren't delivering what people expect.

Ichlasul Amal, the former rector of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University and one of the co-authors of the Dutch study, questions the parties" commitment to grassroots democratization. "It isn't clear whether provincial, regental (district) and municipal legislatures represent parties, the people, or conflicting interests in society," he says.