PDI-P's senseless game

The Jakarta City Council had the honor on Tuesday to demonstrate how democracy should work in the age of reform.

The event was the election of its speaker, which was well participated in by 84 councilors, all of whom -- except for nine military/police representatives -- were elected in the June general election. No less than 30 of the councilors are members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the largest faction in the council.

The party fielded its own candidate for the post but was ironically defeated by a police major general, Edy Waluyo. Many surely found the result well beyond understanding considering that PDI Perjuangan participated in the vote. The PDI Perjuangan councilors must have initially been members of the ruling party who defected. Other councilors early stated that there was no way they would elect a military man or a police officer because, customary, neither participate in polls.

The PDI Perjuangan nominee Tarmidi Suhardjo, himself the faction chairman, did not hide his disappointment over Edy's appointment. But he had to calm himself because the chairwoman of the party executive board, Megawati Soekarnoputri, had the last word on the party's maneuver. She had apparently instructed the faction to support a military/police candidate.

Tarmidi sadly lamented that half of the votes gained by the general came from his faction. The strategy, he said, was aimed at blocking the ambition of the "axis force" (Poros Tengah) candidate. In Tarmidi's own words: "You know that the axis force is attempting to push Megawati out (as a presidential candidate)."

He said the move was also part of the party's strategy to secure military/police support for PDI Perjuangan's bid to obtain one seat representing Jakarta in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the country's highest constitutional body, which will elect a president in November.

The confusion worsened after a later statement by a PDI Perjuangan deputy chairman, Mochtar Buchori, claiming Megawati had never given such an instruction. "It was the work of the Jakarta chapter of the party," he said on Tuesday. The puzzle ended yesterday after Tarmidi reconfirmed that Megawati had told him again that it was her strategy.

Whether the strategy works or not remains to be seen. But the military/police faction told reporters yesterday that no deal had been made with PDI Perjuangan. The faction said it would select the best son of Jakarta to represent the province in the MPR.

While only time will tell whether the maneuver worked, one thing is sure, and that is that Megawati's unintelligent game proves the truth of today's axiom that any friction between civilian forces only benefits the military, which always looks for an opportunity to be in the midst of things.

Megawati's maneuver is nothing but history repeating itself in a counterproductive way. In the 1950s, when the nation started experimenting with liberal democracy, this habit was part of the game. It was popularly called koe handel, Dutch for cow trade. This give-and-take game usually resulted in fragile cooperation.

Today, this kind of orthodoxy is dangerous for the development of a civil society. PDI Perjuangan still has much to learn to become a viable political power to lead this crisis-hit nation.