Scholars skeptical about election '04
P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Scholars doubt this year's elections will help democracy to flourish much here, because the political parties have merely reduced the process to a primitive struggle for power.
Historian Anhar Gonggong said during a seminar dedicated to noted Indonesian philosopher Drijarkara on Thursday that today's political milieu was still overshadowed by egocentricities. This trend negates the main purpose of building togetherness and promoting welfare for citizens, Anhar said.
Anhar added that a democratic country should be able to provide enough space for people to express their political views and hopes.
"Something is sorely lacking ... the will to improve the welfare for all. These days, people with authority and leaders of political parties have become self-obsessed," said Anhar.
Anhar cited some current practices in the country, where every political party seems unwilling to accept the word "lose" and is prone to defying ethics and regulations in a bid to come out on top.
He also lamented the fact that political parties were obviously engaging in early or disguised campaigning, which confirmed their lack of ethics.
The campaign period will run from March 11 through April 1.
The Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) filed a report with the Jakarta Police of alleged early campaigning by the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the United Development Party (PPP) after they held a march in the capital earlier this year. Panwaslu, however, apparently overlooked the case against the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) for holding a bigger march in the Central Java town of Surakarta.
"Who will dare to disqualify a prominent figure such as (President and leader of PDI-P) Megawati Soekarnoputri? Even Panwaslu is reluctant to act," said Anhar.
Anhar said such practices strengthened the perception of how uncivilized the Indonesian political atmosphere was. He added that the political system would never work unless everyone obeyed the laws.
According to Anhar, the country has been in a transitional period for so long that some parties are just happy to maintain the status quo for the sake of their interests.
Supporting Anhar's opinion was Mudji Sutrisno, a lecturer of philosophy at Drijarkara Institute in Central Jakarta.
Mudji said the elections would fail because people did not know how to vote or who to vote for, partly because of the General Elections Commission (KPU).
He said the KPU had failed to allocate enough time to educate the voters to exercise their political right with common sense.
"KPU currently is too busy taking care of less important technical things, such as the tender of ballot boxes and ballot papers," said Mudji, who walked out on the KPU, along with Imam Prasodjo, and opted to continue to devote themselves to independent voter education.
Mudji encourages people to exercise common sense and avoid blind faith in certain parties or politicians in order to prevent pro-status quo groups from ruling the country.
"We are in the minus malum (not an ideal condition) in which all choices are considered bad. Still we have to choose the best among them," said Mudji.
There have been worries that the election schedule will be delayed because of disrupted production and distribution of election materials.
He suggested that the KPU openly acknowledge the problems facing it and ask for people's help.
Current troubles facing KPU, according to Mudji, were triggered by the House of Representatives, who failed to endorse the election law on time. The delay left KPU only one year and one month to prepare for the elections, far from its demand for two years.