Scholars skeptical about election '04

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.