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