Poll promises put Golkar's credibility to test: Analysts

Poll promises put Golkar's credibility to test: Analysts

SEMARANG (JP): Political analysts have credited functionaries'
hard work for Golkar's landslide win but have warned that the
party would lose credibility if it fails to fulfill its election
promises.

They also attributed Golkar's victory to the nose-diving
performance of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), which has
its share of votes drop from 15 percent in 1992 to 3 percent.

At least this was the opinion earlier this week of Afan
Gaffar, Cornelis LAY, both of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada
University, Novel Ali and Muladi of Semarang's Diponegoro
University.

Afan said Golkar chief Harmoko had aggressively mobilized
support for Golkar since he assumed his post in 1993. Harmoko had
targeted all spectrums of society, especially first-time voters.

He theorized that Golkar also benefited from people's fear
that its loss could cause political uncertainty and chaos.

"They voted for Golkar with the hope that the nation's
development programs would continue. They did not want to risk
the political uncertainty if it lost," he said.

As vote counting nears completion, Golkar is expected to win
74 percent of the vote which will entitle it to about 325 seats
in the House of Representatives.

Its main rival, the Moslem-oriented United Development Party
(PPP), won 23 percent, 90 seats, and the PDI won 3 percent, about
10 seats.

Novel, Cornelis and Afan said that PDI's shrinking popularity
had boosted Golkar's performance.

"Many PDI supporters fed up with Soerjadi's leadership shifted
their allegiance to Golkar or PDI," Novel said.

Novel said the people could not wait to see Golkar begin to
create clean governance as it had repeatedly promised during the
April 27 to May 23 campaign.

"What Golkar could do is empower supervising institutions so
that the public could participate in the supervision of the
government," he said.

Cornelis said Golkar had also benefited from people's fear of
the Moslem-based PPP emerging as the dominant party.

Cornelis said that high on Golkar's agenda was the fulfillment
of its many election promises, such as eradication of poverty and
corruption in the bureaucracy.

"Failure to materialize these ideas would mean great pressure
for Golkar and the government," he said. "Golkar should prove
that it did not give empty promises."

Muladi said Golkar's big win meant that it had a heavy moral
burden to fulfill its promises.

Muladi said he was concerned by PDI's poor performance this
election because of its long-standing leadership rift.

The PDI had tremendous grassroots support but the rift stopped
people voting for it, he said.

PDI, which grew out of an alliance of Christian and
nationalist parties, is considering relinquishing the House of
Representatives seats it won last week because it considers the
number of seats inadequate.

Afan said the PDI's humiliating loss did not mean the end of
the party.

He predicted that PDI would soon re-emerge as a strong party
and improve its performance in the 2002 election.

Soerjadi would be replaced in the coming party congress for
his election failure, but Megawati Soekarnoputri was not a likely
successor because she had lost the government's favor after
announcing that she would not vote, Afan said.

Riswandha Imawan, a political observer from Gadjah Mada
University, shared his opinion.

He said that, in the 2002 election, the government would turn
against the PPP which became a strong contender this year.
(har/23/pan)