Rational party system required

Rational party system required

By Aleksius Jemadu

BANDUNG (JP): One of the main goals of political reform is to
make Indonesia's party system more representative and democratic.

A political party system can be considered democratic if the
existing parties reflect the diversity of political aspirations
in society and have sufficient autonomy to influence and control
the governing process.

The present political party system, which consists of three
political parties: Golkar, the functional group; the United
Development Party (PPP); and the Indonesian Democratic Party
(PDI), is widely considered undemocratic because the political
parties are the result of political engineering by the ruling
power. It is no wonder that, after Soeharto's resignation, these
parties have tended to disintegrate and there is now a growing
demand for the establishment of new political parties.

It should be noted, however, that any party system should be
based on a clear and widely acceptable rationality. The
rationality of the present party system can no longer be
maintained if we want to build a democratic state.

During Soeharto's era, the ruling Golkar became an effective
instrument to win politically engineered elections in order to
give formal legitimacy to Soeharto's government.

As regards to the other two political parties, PPP and PDI,
there was always a systematic effort by the ruling power to
divide and rule them by manipulating their vulnerability to
internal conflict.

Thus, when Megawati Soekarnoputri managed to attract
increasingly popular support for PDI, Soeharto's government
immediately endorsed an extraordinary congress in Medan just to
topple her and appoint Soerjadi as the new PDI chairman.

Unfortunately, most of the government officials who helped
Soeharto in such a dirty game still hold prominent positions in
the present reform Cabinet.

This is precisely why Indonesia needs a new rationality on
which a more democratic party system can be based. Before
formulating such rationality, it is necessary to have a clear
view on the national political goals in the short and long terms.

All Indonesians would agree that the party system should
reflect the plurality of Indonesian people. But democracy should
never be promoted just for the sake of democracy. It is not an
end in itself. It is only an institutional mechanism or procedure
to achieve other national goals like economic welfare and social
justice.

Therefore, our eagerness to establish a democratic party
system should never sacrifice the need to have sufficient
political stability so that foreign investors do not hesitate to
invest here.

It is very likely that more new political parties will emerge.
It remains to be seen how the new law on political parties will
accommodate people's diverse aspirations. Some normative and
practical suggestions can be put forward as input for the
establishment of such a law.

First, there must be a balance between two equally important
priorities: democracy and political stability.

The Indonesian government has been under increasing pressure
from the IMF to maintain political stability so that economic
recovery might soon be achieved. It would be wise if all
political groups put national interests above their respective
sectarian orientations. Democracy without discipline would only
lead this nation into a dark future.

Second, the era of political engineering and co-optation by
the government already belongs to the past. Let political parties
grow naturally without external intervention so that eventually
we can have more independent political parties.

It is now the people themselves who determine which political
parties should survive and deserve people's support. It is too
early to determine how many political parties we should have. In
any case, political parties should reflect the aspirations of
major political groups in society.

Third, we ought to realize by now that the absence of a
committed opposition party over a long period could lead to
chronic abuse of power by the government. The Indonesian
political system needs to institutionalize and strengthen public
control through an effective functioning of an opposition party.

Last but not least, let us end the practice of state
corporatism through which the government grants a monopoly of
representation to certain groups.

Indonesian journalists, for instance, may establish their own
independent association without being forced to become members of
the government-backed Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI).

Political standardization could hamper efforts to establish a
strong civil society as a precondition for a democratic state.
Hopefully, these ideas can be used as input for the establishment
of a new law on political parties.

The writer is the head of the school of international
relations at the Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung.

Window: ...our eagerness to establish a democratic party system
may never sacrifice the need to have sufficient political
stability so that foreign investors might not be hesitated to
invest their money here.