RI strives to find ideal number of parties
RI strives to find ideal number of parties
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The increasing number of political parties is a consequence of
the democracy obtained after three decades of restriction, but in
the long run only two or three of them will survive, observers
said on Saturday.
Political analyst Fachry Ali said many people would still
consider establishing new parties for the next few years while
democracy here was still in its infancy.
"It is normal in the beginning of a democracy, but parties
will be reduced to only the strongest by natural selection. I
predict we will have only three parties in 20 years," Fachry told
The Jakarta Post.
According to him, the three parties would represent
nationalist, religious and globalized, middle-class, intellectual
movements.
"That's the time when people use common sense in politics," he
said.
During New Order administration, political parties were
reduced to three by the government, with ruling party Golkar
winning a majority vote in each of its six elections since 1971.
The first election in the reform era, in 1999, featured 48
political parties, but only 12 of them won seats in the House of
Representatives. With the electoral threshold set at 2 percent,
only six of them will be eligible for the 2004 elections.
Currently, over 200 parties have registered with the Ministry
of Justice and Human Rights.
But analysts said a strict election bill, being discussed by
legislators at the House, would likely reduce that number
significantly.
Too many political parties would spark difficulties not only
for a commission tasked with managing it all, but for the people
on voting day.
Separately, Arbi Sanit said Indonesia should try to implement
two-party system like the United States.
He said the system would help establish an effective
government and strong control from the House.
"The system must be supported with a district election
system," he said. "Without districts we will not be able to
reduce the current number of parties."
Meanwhile, Syamsuddin Haris of the National Institute of
Science agreed that the hundreds of political parties needed to
merge together to win seats in the House.
However, he did not agree that there should be an ideal number
for Indonesia political parties.
"There is no such ideal number for Indonesia regarding the
political parties," he said.
According to Syamsuddin, the best way to reduce the number of
political parties would be to implement strict criteria for them
to participate in the 2004 election.