Political parties told to present platforms

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In a bid to help promote democracy, political parties should clearly present their political platform to the public, say Muslim scholar Nurcholish "Cak Nur" Madjid and veteran journalist Goenawan Mohamad.

The lack of clear platforms and the opaqueness of political parties has created a barrier to the democratization process in the country, they said.

"If we want to nurture democracy, political parties must be open-minded and transparent," Nurcholish said at a discussion titled Democracy and Indonesia's Future here.

He noticed that almost all political parties in Indonesia practiced conspiratorial or secretive behavior, and avoided communicating directly with the people.

Nurcholish, rector of Paramadina University, added that political parties' openness would encourage people to be critical, and thereby build a check-and-balance relationship between political parties and the people.

Speaking at the same discussion, Goenawan added that political parties in Indonesia were no more than a fan club.

Instead of developing a clear platform and providing political education for the people, he said political parties in Indonesia were only "fan clubs of the chairpersons".

"PDI Perjuangan (the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle), for example, is only a group of Megawati's fans," he said.

The non-performing democracy in Indonesia was also caused by the lack of leadership in the country, Goenawan added.

He said that the current leaders in Indonesia did not emerge through a proper political process, as in the case of Megawati, who had emerged as a leader through a political incident.

Megawati was considered a leader, he said, just because she was a victim of the repressive New Order regime.

"Thus, Megawati emerges not because of her capacity, but because of an incident," said Goenawan, founder of the influential Tempo weekly magazine.

Both Nurcholish and Goenawan agreed that the slow process of democratization had its roots in the lack of democratic processes in the past, especially under the New Order.

Nurcholish emphasized that democracy in Indonesia could still be developed, if all groups in the country put aside their individual interests and instead respected others'.

"It is impossible in democracy to force others; there must be negotiation and compromise," Nurcholish said.