Political parties must be able to promote national reforms
Political parties must be able to promote national reforms
By Hendardi
JAKARTA (JP): The current monetary crisis has had a deep
impact on the Indonesian community. The price of basic
commodities has rocketed and unemployment is rising.
Dr. Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, one of the country's most
respected economists, has said that the crisis pertains not only
to the monetary and economic sectors but is a crisis of
confidence in the whole political community.
The crux of the problem is the absence of good governance,
particularly transparency, legal certainty and effective social
control.
It is in this light that we need to take a critical look at
our political parties and seek a means of enabling them to better
represent the people's aspirations and interests in the near
future. A representative and accountable set of political parties
would then be able to promote rational reforms.
So far, political parties have only been established as lip
service to the universal requirement that states must run a party
based political system. Existing Indonesian parties stand in
elections every five years. The elected factions then attend the
five-yearly meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly to
elect a president and vice president.
Political parties under the New Order are elitist and
primarily serve their board members rather than their supporters.
Only during time of election do they require mass support and at
other times neglect the ordinary people.
Outwith the allotted electioneering period, mobilization of
their mass support for parades, public forums and serious
discussion is virtually non-existent. This impairs progress in
the campaign to increase political awareness among the larger
part of society.
The recognized parties have proved unwilling to reveal their
political manifestoes, populist slogans accepted. Consequently
there has never been a transparent political agenda open to the
scrutiny of supporters. Agendas remain a closed book.
The number of political parties has been limited by the
government to three, with Golkar receiving special treatment.
However, the Golkar (functional group) has never become a ruling
party, after the fashion of the People's Action Party (PAP) in
Singapore and the Ba'ath Party in Iraq. There is no Golkar
government, only a Golkar that is loyal to the government.
Even the stance of political parties, in a system in which
"opposition is not recognized", is unclear. All three parties,
Golkar, the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian
Democratic Party (PDI), depend upon the government for their
operational budget.
Other existing political organizations, such as the Democratic
People's Party (PRD) and the Indonesian Democratic Union Party
(PUDI), are hindered by the imposed limit of three political
parties and remain unrecognized.
Government officials emphasize the multiparty system is not
suitable for Indonesia and the existing system of governance
impedes development of a multiparty system. However, multiparty
systems have been shown to work in the Philippines, Thailand,
Papua New Guinea and Malaysia. Indonesia has been left behind in
this respect.
The elitist and compromised nature of the official political
parties prevents them from pushing important issues such as good
governance, transparency between the bureaucracy and the business
world, and the pursuit of legal certainty.
The inability and unwillingness of political parties to pursue
these issues makes it imperative that political party reform is
included alongside other reforms currently being aired.
If political parties continue to serve the political elite,
then they face a problem of legitimacy. The lack of mass support
for any of the parties amid recent calls for reform is evidence
of this. Unrecognized parties and individuals such as Megawati
have a better rapport with the masses
The recognized parties must consider the interests of the
masses and assist them in becoming an important political force.
The initiative taken by Megawati, who held a mass meeting with
her ordinary supporters, was a useful exercise toward this end.
After more than 30 years without a cohesive political agenda,
it is time now for our political parties to form concrete
political objectives. This, given time, will improve the quality
of both leaders and cadres within the party ranks.
The problems caused by the opaque stance of our parties must
also be resolved. Golkar needs to develop into a ruling party,
like the PAP in Singapore and the Ba'ath Party in Iraq, from
which the government draws its members.
The country must work towards introducing a stable multiparty
system. The two minority parties should aim to act as effective
opposition to Golkar in the early days of such a system. The
notion that our country is not yet capable of adopting a
multiparty system is false. Other countries have proved this to
be so. We cannot continue to say that Indonesia is different from
the rest of the world.
Political parties must also be granted full independence.
Government funding, and subjugation of, the parties must be
abolished.
With reform, political parties will then be better placed to
address the issues of good governance, transparency in government
policy, legal certainty and, act as a counterbalance to the
excessive concentration of power.
The writer is executive director of the Indonesian Legal Aid
and Human Rights Association (PBHI).