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)