No real change in Jakarta politics

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.