RI's political system needs reform

Presidential and vice-presidential elections are drawing closer. Clearer signs have now emerged from political groupings about whom they are going to elect. Political scientist J. Soedjati Djiwandono reflects on the process of selecting leaders in the Indonesian political system.

JAKARTA (JP): Despite signs of progress in the attitude of certain circles towards democratization, one cannot but take note of certain instances which have illustrated how dysfunctional, paralyzed, and ossified the present political system is in Indonesia.

Both the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) factions and the three other factions in the People's Consultative Assembly (the ruling Golkar functional group, the Armed Forces and the regional representatives) have now announced that their chosen candidates for president and vice president for the period 1998-2003 are the incumbent President Soeharto and State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie, respectively.

The PPP and the PDI have clearly betrayed their ordinary supporters, expectant of a difference in stance from Golkar when they cast their votes in elections last year.

The political parties could have differed from Golkar in two possible ways. One way relates to their choice of national leaders. However, now both political parties have reaffirmed the nomination of Golkar's presidential and vice-presidential candidates, both of whom are senior Golkar members.

The other way concerns last year's election manifestoes. However, without offering their own leadership candidates, there is no possibility of policies and promises contained in the manifestoes coming to fruition, since the leaders nominated by both the PPP and PDI come from a different political grouping with a different political agenda.

The whole affair, therefore, makes a mockery of both the party manifestoes and, worse still, of last year's general election, which was nothing short of a waste of time, energy, and money. We would have been more honest to ourselves if only one political grouping, Golkar, had contested last year's elections.

The nomination of only one candidate for each post also implies that the political groupings, including Golkar, and thus the present People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), do not truly represent the people and their aspirations. More than half of the MPR membership are government appointees and the MPR steering committee is clearly dominated by government functionaries.

Golkar, after over three decades "in power", and the two political parties, do not act to channel the changing aspirations of society, particularly our younger generations.

The increasing number of riots and demonstrations in the face of the deepening economic crisis are indicative of the disaffection felt by many people. To dismiss any expression of discontent or disagreement with the official line as "unconstitutional", is an indication of just how nervous those in power are. In any case, differentiating the constitutional from the unconstitutional is a power supposedly only vested in the judiciary, not the executive branch of the country's political system.

Barely two years ago, those in power even went so far as to arrogate to themselves the right to interpret the statutes of the PDI and to determine the legal status of its leadership.

Furthermore, to attribute the cause of recent riots to the "engineering" by "certain quarters" in society in order to "cultivate and spread hatred of the government" is to fail to read and grasp the political mood of the people and is inkeeping with the government's habit of finding scapegoats for the ills of society.

The deepening economic crisis in the country has been exacerbated by a political crisis and a crisis of confidence. It is not only a crisis of confidence in the rupiah, but in the workings of the political system, and thus, in the government overseeing that system.

The crisis is not likely to be overcome using jingoistic slogans and exhorting people to "love the rupiah" and to "love domestic products".

One can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. Above all, no one can outsmart global market forces. A plummeting value for the rupiah following announcement of President Soeharto's re-nomination and after his speech on the draft budget attests to this.

Why have there been so many monopolies at cost to the national economy? Why have corruption, collusion, and nepotism been rampant at the expense of the weak and the poor? Because there is no mechanism of effective control in the political system. Those in power can do practically anything they want and get away with it.

Who dare honestly say that the present Indonesian political system does not need reform?