Parties in disarray

Parties in disarray

A little more than four years after president Soeharto's
forced resignation in May 1998 brought about hopes of political
reform, the growth of the party system in Indonesia still gives
little reason for contentment. Every day the reports that we read
or hear about in the media bring us news of rifts in a number of
political parties that could possibly lead to more serious
splits.

The United Development Party (PPP), which is led by Hamzah
Haz, the Republic's incumbent vice-president, is currently
reported to be in danger of breaking up with the formation of a
PPP Reformasi under the leadership of Kiyai Haji Zainuddin M.Z.
The real reason why PPP, which among Muslim parties has the
largest number of seats in the House of Representatives, is now
on the brink of breaking up is not quite clear. There seems to
have been an internal debate within PPP about whether to conduct
a national working conference of party representatives in 2003,
as was decided before, or to postpone it until towards the end of
2004, after the next general elections.

K.H. Zainuddin M.Z., in a statement, pointed to a more
principled issue, namely the party's position towards the
implementation of syariah (Islamic) law. Zainuddin M.Z. has said
that by advocating the implementation of Islamic law in
Indonesia, as Hamzah Haz and his followers seem to be doing, the
party would become unpopular in the public's eye. Efforts to
patch up the differences meanwhile seem to have been fruitless.
Zainuddin formally announced his resignation on Tuesday and,
barring unexpected developments, the new party, PPP Reformasi, is
expected to formally come into being on Jan. 27, with the
composition of its executive board to be made public in May.

The problem faced by the National Awakening Party (PKB),
former president Abdurrahman Wahid's party, is more serious
compared to that which is facing PPP. Matori Abdul Jalil, the
current minister of defense in President Megawati's cabinet,
claims he is still the party's legitimate chairman. On the other
hand former foreign minister Alwi Shihab has positioned himself
as the new party chairman.

Matori's political sin was that he went along with moves
within the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) last year to
replace president Abdurrahman Wahid with his then vice-president
Megawati Soekarnoputri. Gus Dur, as Abdurrahman Wahid is
popularly known, and his followers regarded it a serious breach
of party loyalty that Matori was present during the MPR special
session, which was convened on July 21 to start proceedings
towards installing Megawati as president of Indonesia. The two
factions are now planning to hold their "national conferences" in
Yogyakarta in the near future. There is always the possibility
that a reunited PKB will emerge at the urging of Nahdlatul Ulama
(NU), which is their spiritual base organization.

Looking at Golkar, that resilient political entity inherited
from president Soeharto's New Order, it is no secret that various
factions exist within that party. With the Attorney General now
having declared its chairman, Akbar Tanjung, a suspect in a major
corruption case, it is not surprising that moves have emerged
within that party to replace its chairman. If that happens it can
be expected that Golkar as a centrist party will break up.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan),
this country's largest party which managed to win 32 percent of
the popular vote in the 1999 general election, is also far from
solid. Senior party leaders who were formerly close to their
chairperson, Megawati Soekarnoputri, and were the source of many
innovative ideas, are now marginalized. It seems that the
president's husband, Taufik Kiemas, who is a member of the House
of Representatives, has managed to consolidate his position as a
strong figure in the party. Close observers of PDI Perjuangan
have made the pessimistic assessment that the party might have to
be content with a mere 15 percent of the popular vote in the 2004
general election.

On the one hand, the instability of the political parties in
Indonesia is not very surprising, given the intense social-
political dynamics which the country has been experiencing in the
last three years, coupled with complex economic problems. In just
a little more than three years the country has seen three
presidents come and go. The political parties have hardly had
time to adjust and consolidate their ranks and come up with party
platforms that are relevant to the myriad problems Indonesia is
facing.

The urgent question that needs to be posed at this stage is
whether the main political parties can reorganize themselves
before the next general election and thus, as transformed
parties, make viable contributions to this country's emerging
democracy. If internal conflicts and instability continue to
afflict the main political parties, it can be easily predicted
that the 2004 general election will produce a fragile political
system and thus also a weak government.