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.