PDI and PPP should keep tabs on govt
PDI and PPP should keep tabs on govt
SEMARANG (JP): Although his recent proposal that opposition
parties be allowed in Indonesia has been dismissed by President
Soeharto, intellectual Nurcholish Madjid continues to insist that
the nation needs some form of control over the executive branch
of bureaucracy.
Nurcholish said yesterday that, whether or not the term
"opposition" is used, it is vital that there be forces that can
provide checks and balances in Indonesian politics and, thereby,
bring about clean governance.
"This control (of the government) is urgent because the public
is increasingly demanding clean government, as has been conceded
by Minister of Defense and Security Edi Sudradjat," Nurcholish
told a seminar organized by the Association of Indonesian Moslem
Intellectuals.
Nurcholish sparked a national debate last week when he
suggested, at a seminar in Jakarta, that the Indonesian
Democratic Party (PDI) and the United Development Party (PPP)
should become opposition parties.
Indonesian law does not permit political opposition.
Nurcholish said that only if the two parties stood in a
position of opposition to the ruling Golkar party would there be
effective control over the executive branch of government.
President Soeharto, who has been in power for almost 30 years,
rejected the idea. The President pointed out that the notion of
opposition is inconsistent with the state ideology, Pancasila,
which prescribes consensus (musyawarah) through deliberation.
Nurcholish said economic development has led to the emergence
of more and more educated people with greater political awareness
and that these people are now demanding greater democracy.
"Economic progress has brought with it demands for greater
political participation. My experience as a member of the
National Commission on Human Rights has taught me that people are
demanding more because they know their rights," he said.
He said that people should have the courage to express their
ideas about what they see as flaws in the way the state is
administered.
Because the system requires people to channel their
aspirations through the three existing political organizations,
the most logical choice is to strengthen the role the PDI and the
PPP, he said.
"So far the PDI and the PPP have not been able to do much to
represent the people's interests because they position themselves
as the bureaucracy's partners," he added.
In response to the proposal last week, President Soeharto
pointed to the bitter experience of the 1950s, when Indonesia
adopted liberal democracy and the political situation was chaotic
and cabinets shortlived. The concept of opposition, he concluded,
is not appropriate for Indonesian conditions.
Nurcholish, a prominent Moslem intellectual, said that the
success of any political system depended on the maturity of a
country's people. (har/pan)