Provinces have right to form local political parties

The establishment of local parties in Aceh is one of the most contentious issues the government will have to settle with the House or Representatives before a peace deal with Free Aceh Movement rebels can be signed on Aug. 15. The Jakarta Post's Tiarma Siboro discussed the matter with Todung Mulya Lubis, a noted lawyer and co-founder of the Aceh Kita Foundation.

Question: The Helsinki meeting between delegations of the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has brought up the issue of local political parties for the Acehnese. How do you see this?

Answer: The issue on local political parties for Acehnese has pros and cons here. But no matter how the Indonesian authorities may respond the issue, we can say that both parties have reached agreement on about 99 percent of all points that lead to a peaceful solution for Aceh. What the government has to do now is to get political support from legislators to amend all political legislation, including laws on political parties and general elections, to enable local parties to participate in the next elections.

As we know, the law on political parties firmly stipulates that only parties that have representatives in no less than 50 percent of the total 33 provinces are able to participate in elections.

Why do some legislators oppose allowing GAM to form a local political party?

We have gone this far to settle the conflict in Aceh. We have agreed to provide greater revenue for the resource-rich province and impose Islamic sharia there. It will be ironic if these peaceful efforts be blocked just because we disagree with the presence of local political parties for the Acehnese. And I think we must let the Acehnese share their political rights, and the upcoming direct regional elections are considered a final test as to whether the local political parties will be able to gain significant votes there. If they failed, they will lose political legitimacy.

With the heightened tensions in the House of Representatives towards the Helsinki talks, what are the prospects of the agreement being signed on Aug. 15?

These days are critical days because the government must conceive a national agreement with legislators and politicians. In a bid to win political consensus, the government must campaign to the House and the political parties about the political points that we reached in the Helsinki talks. I don't think the Helsinki talks have violated our Constitution, as Article 28 provides us with freedom of union, freedom of expression and freedom of speech.

Several politicians and military figures are worried about demands from other provinces to also establish local parties. What is your comment on this?

Of course it's a logical question as to whether the policy on local political parties should only be enjoyed by the Acehnese. We have to encourage other Indonesians to ask for similar rights. We have to encourage Indonesians to support independent candidates who will sit in the legislature to voice our aspirations.

Currently, we can say that most Indonesian people do not feel they are being represented by legislators, and I think independent candidates will be key players to answer this representation issue, and the only way that a democratic country can accommodate independent candidates is by allowing its people to establish local political parties.

How much do we really need these local political parties?

In the 1999 general election, during which 48 national-scope political parties joined the race, or even in last year's elections, which were our first-ever direct elections, these have showed that none of these political parties met the criteria of so-called national-scope parties, because none of them won significant votes in all of Indonesia's 33 provinces, which undermines their claims to be national-scope parties.

And with data showing that no less than 20 percent of registered voters nationwide not exercising their political rights in the last year's direct elections, it is reasonable for this country to support the establishment of local political parties.

Some have argued that local political parties will lead the country into federalism, which goes against the concept of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI)?

In 1955 our country held its first-ever elections with the participation of local political parties. Did it affect the NKRI- concept? Did it affect the democratic concept? A deadlock happened only after we began to set up the legislative body, or so-called Badan Konstituante.

Besides, we are now in a process of transformation from centralization to decentralization. We have supported special autonomy for Aceh and Papua. We have also imposed regional autonomy nationwide.