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).