The year of political disputes

The year of political disputes

Kurniawan Hari and
Bambang Nurbianto
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

When the nation entered a reform era following the downfall of
autocratic president Soeharto in 1998 and his protege B.J.
Habibie in Oct.1999, there had been high expectation of the whole
nation for a more humane society.

This year, three years after the beginning of the reform era,
the signs of improvement do not appear. Major political parties
came up as new political powers after the June 1999 elections
have not yet been able to become agent of change.

In a democratic society, political parties are expected to
become the spinal instruments of a civil society. They have to be
the engines for law enforcement, for the creation of supremacy of
law, and for the establishment of a check and balance system.

Those functions will work only if the political parties are
solid and effective. And as organizations which represent the
people, they are expected to fight for interest of the public, or
at least for their respective constituents.

But the major political parties seem to have failed to fulfill
those functions as they are quickly trapped in internal disputes.

Politicians throughout 2001 were engaged in self interest
political maneuvers or horse trading, a far cry from touching
public interests.

People's expectation was reduced to skepticism. They know they
gain nothing from the political parties both as institutions or
by the politicians.

A number of polling carried out by research centers,
newspapers, and electronic media show how the people was getting
disappointed over the political performance.

Six major parties surged after the 1999 election including the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Golkar
Party, the United Development Party (PPP), the National Awakening
Party (PKB), the National Mandate Party (PAN), and the Crescent
Star Party (PBB).

Internal disputes

In January, PAN was hit by internal dispute when 16 members
quit the party. They included former secretary general Faisal
Basri, and former deputy secretary general Bara Hasibuan.

One of the reasons of the resignation was their disappointment
over the dominant role played by cadres from Muhammadiyah in the
party. They were also unhappy with the party as it had moved from
a party that promoted pluralism to one that emphasized
exclusivity.

Another reason is the remitment of several controversial
figures from the New Order regime like Fuad Bawazier.

PBB's rift was sparked by conflicts between the party chairman
Yusril Ihza Mahendra with several veterans politician like
Hartono Mardjono and Abdul Kadir Djaelani.

The party's executive board dismissed Hartono and Djaelani
from the party membership on Feb. 1 this year following their
claim that they are respectively the legitimate chairman and
secretary-general of the party.

Last year, internal dispute hit the largest party, PDI
Perjuangan sparked by opposing views between those who wanted to
defend Megawati Soekarnoputri leadership and those who demanded
her resignation after her election as the then vice-president.

The dispute continues particularly between long time members
and new comers, forcing Arifin Panigoro to leave his leadership
in the party's House faction.

Golkar, the second major party, faces crucial problem
following the inability of its members to help BJ Habibie
reelected the 1999 Assembly's general session. The situation has
been lasting until present.

Internal disputes in PPP and PKB, the third and fourth biggest
parties still take places.

A renegade faction in PPP, which is not satisfied with the way
the party is being led, threatened to establish a splinter party
called "PPP reformasi".

The faction, which claimed support from 13 PPP chapters
throughout the country, demanded that the PPP central board
revoke its decision to hold the board election after the 2004
general election.

The central board should accelerate the chairmanship election
to 2002 to provide young cadres in the party with a greater
chance of replacing the older, existing executives, according to
the faction, they said.

Zainuddin M.Z., a noted Islamic preacher, will likely to
announce the establishment of PPP Reformasi early next year.

PKB internal bickering began when the party's chairman Matori
Abdul Djalil attended last July Assembly's special session which
was boycotted by the party as the session was held to oust
party's chief patron Abdurrahman Wahid from his presidency.

Matori was fired from the party chairmanship, and was replaced
by former foreign affairs minister Alwi Shihab. But Matori
insisted that he was still the party's chairman.

Each of the two PKB factions planned to hold a national
party's extraordinary congress to reaffirm leadership of both
Alwi and Matori in the respective faction. Matori even claimed
congress of his faction will be opened by President Megawati.

Ignoring Reform Agenda

Instead of trying to outline policy on how to regain economic
recovery, political parties early this year sought a way to
unseat erratic president Abdurrahman Wahid.

Political parties that were rivals in the presidential
election on October 1999 were united this year to remove Wahid
from office.

Prior to the 1999 election, political parties vowed to carry
out all the reform agendas.

They pledged to eradicate corrupt practices, to implement law
enforcement, regional autonomy, and establish civil society.

However, all those reform agendas have been subordinated to
vested interests.

A reform agenda that apparently gets response from the
political parties might be the call for amendment to the
Constitution. The largest party, PDI Perjuangan, at first refused
to carry out the demand, but later gave backing.

In the face of the public, all parties appear to be the
spearheads of the amendment. But in forum inside the legislature
building, those political parties busily practice "horse-trading"
among themselves.

The selfishness of those parties had left the essence of the
amendment protracted and unfocused. There was no grand design in
the amendment process, but following the "pull and push"
negotiation based on the interest of each party.

The Assembly had finished amendment to 25 Articles in the
first 9 chapters of the Constitution. But the demand to form a
constitutional commission had been rejected by legislators.

The calls from public for a law enforcement has been responded
by the political parties with the creation of inquiry committees
yielding in mere recommendations without concrete act of law
enforcement.

The formation of the rainbow cabinet in August 2001 also
displays the greed of the political parties to share power in the
executive body. None of them has the valor to take the opposition
stance to fully control and supervise the government.

I-box
Distribution of seats in the House of Representatives:

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle 153
Golkar Party 120
United Development Party 58
National Awakening Party 51
National Mandate Party 34*
Crescent Star Party 13
Justice Party 7*

*) National Mandate Party and Justice Party hold alliance and
form the Reform Faction