Political revival seen as most important theme

JAKARTA (JP): The most significant thing to come out of the election campaign so far is the need for political revitalization, political observer J. Kristiadi said yesterday.

Kristiadi, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the fight against corruption, collusion and nepotism and other campaign themes were now insignificant because the public was unlikely to believe there would be substantial change.

Political revitalization, introduced by the United Development Party (PPP), was now the most relevant theme, he said.

"PPP sees that Indonesia's political system is stagnant... (Elected PPP members) should continue to follow up on this when they represent the people in the House," he said.

Kristiadi said political revitalization was needed because the government had become too powerful for the House of Representatives to control.

"The House has become a part of the bureaucracy," he said.

He said that, before revitalizing Indonesian politics, the House had to revitalize itself.

This meant changing House rules which stopped members properly representing their constituents.

He cited the requirement that people from two parties in the House had to introduce bills or amendments as a rule which restricted the House's initiative. He said this rule must change for the House to function properly.

Besides changes to House rules, the bureaucracy's attitude towards political parties and organizations had to change, he said.

"The bureaucracy should have the political will not to meddle in political parties and organizations," he said, deploring the current situation where organizations' leaders have to solicit the government's blessing, and members have to pass screening to prove they have no past communist links.

Kristiadi said he doubted the campaign would achieve anything.

"The structure of the election is so unfair because the bureaucracy dominates it in order to help a particular contestant win," he said.

He said the distortions in the election process were very significant.

"The elections have become mere political receptions, which means people know who will be there and what to expect. It's not a real election at all," he said.

But political observer Maswadi Rauf, from the University of Indonesia's School of Political and Social Sciences, said that despite the shortcomings, the campaign was important.

"The campaign period is actually very important because people make their decisions at the last minute... Without campaigns, there would be many people who would opt not to vote," he said.

But, he said, the public's understanding of the campaign was limited to the physical side of rallies and festivities.

"This perception is as incorrect as the government's understanding that a set of strict rules can guarantee that two- way traffic campaigns will run smoothly," he said.

Maswadi said that instead of improving the campaign, the new campaign rules had made things worse.

"Many people have rallies just for the sake of breaking these rules," he said.

He suggested that the government take gradual steps to change rally and speech-based campaigns into discussion campaigns.

He said the government should allow rallies until the next general election in 2002. In 2007, the proportion of discussions to rallies should balance and in 2012 the proportion of rallies should fall.

"Only in 2017, if the political parties want, will the public be prepared to have full dialog campaigns for the election," he said. (pwn)