'Weaker' lineup may mean mature democracy: Cak Nur

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta

While many political analysts have bemoaned the lack of strong, charismatic presidential candidates in the July 5 election, a prominent Muslim scholar believes less-powerful candidates are the key to a good democracy.

"(In this election) there are no strongmen like Sukarno and Soeharto (running for office). We hope this will be the starting point for a mature democracy," Nurcholish Madjid said in his keynote speech at a discussion here on Saturday organized by the Indonesian Chinese Community and the Elkasa research group.

Nurcholish, better known as Cak Nur, said unlike in the era of the all-powerful presidents Sukarno and Soeharto, who were dubbed the "fathers of the nation", the next president would simply function as the chief executive officer of the state.

This diminished role he said would encourage the people to criticize the policies and performance of the new government, an important check and balance in democracy.

"We have to take advantage of this situation," he said.

Cak Nur, the Paramadina Mulya University's rector and a professor at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, said the successful and peaceful legislative election on April 5 showed Indonesia's democracy was on the right track.

However, while Indonesia's democracy worked well in practice, the country still needed good leadership, he said.

"But we have to accept this (democratic) process and recognize whomever is elected the next president," he said.

Cak Nur contested the Golkar Party's first convention in April to select a presidential candidate. He later withdrew his bid due to what he said was rampant vote-buying within the party of former president Soeharto.

Also speaking at Saturday's discussion were noted economist Faisal Basri and political analysts Mochtar Pabottingi and Mohammad Qodari.

Faisal said it would take time for the democracy-new nation to select a great president.

Speaking before an audience of Chinese Indonesians, a group often the target of negative New Order policies, Faisal said the next president should be willing to end all forms of racial discrimination.

Meanwhile, Mochtar Pabottingi of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) believed the people's perception of candidates would not be influenced by expensive and slick political campaigns.

An example was Golkar's campaign, he said. Although the party had the nation's most experienced and well-funded political machine, it had been damaged by allegations of corruption and vote buying, he said.

Mochtar said party leader Akbar Tandjung should have won the Golkar convention because he was always at the frontline defending the party.

Vote buying had ruined the convention process however, Mochtar said.