The PDI case

To some people a political fuss between local authorities and the leaders of a political party might appear to be little more than a tempest in a tea cup. To the nation as a whole, the problem is a lot more serious.

To be more specific: It has probably worried a lot of people that the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) has been having such a lot of difficulties installing a provincial party board for East Java that -- assuming the reports circulating at the time were correct -- was elected by majority vote in a recent meeting.

It appears that certain individual members of the party were dissatisfied with their defeat and proclaimed themselves the new provincial board -- with the blessing, or so it seemed, of the East Java provincial authorities. It certainly cannot have surprised anyone that the party's central board in Jakarta was not amused by the incident and refused to give the perpetrators of the apparent putsch its blessings. Instead it installed a provincial board of its own choosing for East Java, headed by the man who won the majority of votes in the recent provincial congress.

All seemed settled when top government officials in Jakarta said they would respect the central board's decision. Therefore, when East Java Governor Basofi Sudirman unexpectedly summoned all the province's party branch leaders to come to Surabaya for consultation, it did not seem surprising that the party's central board felt that its authority was being undermined.

In the latest development, Basofi Sudirman was reported to have apologized to the PDI central board and cut short the Surabaya meeting, which ended without any decisions being made. So far, no further damage seemed to have been done. But still, the lingering feeling of unease which the incident has created is hard to erase.

The point is that what the Indonesian Democratic Party experienced with Governor Basofi Sudirman has also been suffered -- although in a smaller magnitude -- by the United Development Party (PPP), in another area and at another time.

What happened in East Java could have been avoided if: first, all local politicians had respected the rules of the game; second, if the provincial governor had been able to clearly draw the boundaries between the development of local political life -- which is held to be part of his responsibility -- and outright intervention into a political group's internal affairs; and third, if the central executive board of the crisis-prone PDI had reacted more quickly to quench the sparks in one of its local branches.

When Latief Pudjosakti set up his self-styled PDI provincial executive board after he lost the local election for the East Java branch leadership, the party's chairwoman, Megawati Soekarnoputri should have acted firmly and swiftly by expelling the rebellious activist from the party. This same view is shared by, among others, former PDI chairman Surjadi, who is now deputy speaker of the House of Representatives. She failed to do that.

Megawati's inaction might have been caused by her unhurried style, or by lack of experience as a politician. But the latter excuse seems ironic because Megawati was elected last year due to her clean past, as far as internal squabbles were concerned. It seems that the Sukarno mystique, another reason why she was elected, has not been strong enough to clear ambitious politicians who refuse to respect democracy out of the party.

Anyway, the East Java political game is a good lesson for all parties who are involved in the country's political development. Now that Basofi has apologized, some soul-searching should be done, not only by him, but also by other provincial leaders. The fact that they hold the capacity as patrons of political development in their area also raises the question of how deeply they can stick their fingers into the affairs of a political organization and what their interpretation of political freedom is.

Their claims that disputes within political groups can destabilize their regions often sounds ill-advised because over- eager intervention could worsen any crisis. In the East Java case, we are convinced that the PDI central board will be able to resolve the problem if the local authorities do not take sides. Quite often, non-intervention not only turns a group into a more viable entity, it also provides a better guarantee of true stability.