'Reformasi' disenfranchised: Sutiyoso and Komnas HAM

'Reformasi' disenfranchised: Sutiyoso and Komnas HAM

Max Lane, Center for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies,
University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

Two recent developments in the political scene underline
clearly how the reformasi sector of society has become
disenfranchised from the political process. During the last 10
years of the Soeharto New Order dictatorship a social sector
developed comprising advocacy organizations (NGOs), human rights
institutions, trade unions, peasant organizations, women groups,
even anti-dictatorship political parties, student activist
coalitions and, most importantly, scores of action committees
around different local issues.

It was this large, but dispersed, sector, led by the student
movement that forced Soeharto's resignation and invented the term
reformasi. But this sector has been quickly disenfranchised;
marginalized from the decision making process of government and
legislature.

This marginalization is very evident in the case of the
selection of the next governor of Jakarta. The major parties, at
least at the national leadership level, are supporting the
current governor, Sutiyoso. Sutiyoso, military commander of
Jakarta the last years of the New Order, cannot in any way be
seen as a product or representative of the "reform" sector.

If anything, Sutiyoso must be categorized still as a
representative of the New Order era, who has survived into the
era reformasi.

There have been several well-known personalities who have come
forward from the reformasi sector to register as candidates of
the governorship. These include a leading activist from the urban
poor sector, Rasdullah a leader of many of Jakarta's pedicab
drivers, as well as women activist Ratna Sarumpaet and human
rights activist, Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, who is standing as a
candidate for Deputy Governor.

From the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan) itself there is also a candidate who directly
reflects the reformasi sector among the grass-roots of the party.
But as Endy Bayuni pointed out in The Jakarta Post on July 8,
these candidates have no real chance of competing for the
position of governor because the public itself, society itself,
has been excluded from the process.

The public is excluded from the process insofar as it can be
said that the existing dominant political parties have become
alienated from the public and are perceived as instruments of the
elit politik rather than representatives of some popular
constituency.

It is important to use the Indonesian term elit politik than
"political elite" here. The alienation of the professional
politicians of the parties in the legislature from the rest of
society has created the term elit politik as a term with specific
negative connations, inferring disinterest in the concerns and
welfare of the mass of ordinary people.

There is a huge political gap between this elit politik and
mass consciousness. One reflection of this is the gap between the
elit politik and the reformasi sector.

Apart from the Jakarta governorship another recent example has
been the election of new members of the National Human Rights
Commission (Komnas).

Members of the House of Representatives from the elit politik
met to vote on who should be new members of the Commission. The
vote was preceded by a series of hearings before a parliamentary
commission. Among those who were candidates were a number of
figures and activists from the reformasi sector, including some
who have or have had reputations for being vocal and, sometimes,
confrontational with the authorities.

The most high profile vocal figures of this sector were Wardah
Hafidz, from the Urban Poor Consortium and Hendardi, a human
rights lawyer received very low votes from the legislators. T.
Mulya Lubis, a human rights lawyer who has also established a
respected law firm, also received insufficient votes. As a
founder of the Yap Thian Hien Human Rights Award and as a
commentator, Lubis has been a vocal critic of corruption. The
elit politik chose mostly non-reformasi sector people or the
least vocal or confrontative to be the new members.

Indeed the major parties are not creations of the opposition
process to the New Order, or where they did have some
oppositional role, as with the PDI Perjuangan in 1996, that
aspect of their past is being suppressed. As a result, reformasi
is not represented in the House.

One of the reasons is that the reformasi sector itself has not
fully realized its potential for producing a political
alternative of its own. In 1996, student and worker activists
formed the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD). Despite being
repressed during the 1996-1998 period, the PRD has been able to
survive and to maintain a significant level of activism.

Labor movement figure, Mochtar Pakpahan and anti-Soeharto
figure, Sri Bintang Pamungkas, have both formed political
parties. Among the scores of new parties being registered for the
next elections, there may even be others that originate from
among NGOs, worker or peasant organizations, women groups, the
student movement or action committees.

But while there has been a national women's movement congress
in 1998, there has been no general people's conference or
assembly that could harness all the energies and ideas of the
reformasi sector and that could hammer out a minimum set of
agreed policies. The Indonesian Peoples Forum in Bali in June,
had a limited agenda and participation.

At a public meeting on July 11 at the Jakarta Media Center,
several figures from the reformasi sector indicated support or
interest in the concept of a "peoples' congress" on how the
reformasi sector could present itself as an alternative to the
elit politik. Among those who indicated some support were
Revrisond Baswir, a critical economist from Gajah Mada
University; Haris Rusly Moti from the Peoples Democratic Party
(PRD); Akbar Zulfakkar from Indonesian Muslim Students Action
Front (KAMMI), and Dita Indah Sari, from the Indonesian National
Front For Labor Struggle (FNPBI).

Also present at the meeting was former president Abdurrhman
Wahid. He expressed a more cautious approach, supporting the idea
that some kind of unity was needed, but wanted more discussion
before any concrete steps were taken.

How such a congress might be organized and what its agenda
might be is still not clear. However, any step towards that might
bring the reformasi sector together to move it closer to being
able to present itself as a political alternative to the current
elit politik.

Perhaps unity won't be achieved but the process will still
help clarify which sector of the reformasi movement is willing
and capable to do compete and struggle for governmental power.

While this reformasi sector does not develop, the elit politik
will retain a monopoly over all the major political institutions.

Instead of being the motor of change, the reformasi sector
will be doomed to beg always for some minor concessions or
reforms from the elite. And even this will eventually wear out.