RI's political system needs reform

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?