What PDI-P needs to make it one

By Aleksius Jemadu

BANDUNG (JP): Many believe that the almost assured victory of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) in the general election owes a great deal to the popularity of the party's chairwoman, Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Can you imagine PDI Perjuangan without Megawati?

Charismatic leadership is not an important variable when it comes to matters of how to build more rational political appeal and create an effective government. There are suggestions that the party should find a new "brand name" which is more permanent and relevant to the nation's challenges in facing the third millennium.

Some theorize that the future of the party will be determined by its success in presenting itself as the real antithesis of the New Order government. Three policy domains are particularly important: the promotion of democracy, the practice of good governance and the protection of human rights.

There are at least two reasons why PDI Perjuangan's reliance on Megawati's charisma could be a serious liability for the party's future. First, the success of a modern political party both in the general election and the governing process is not determined by the indispensability of a charismatic leadership, but the capability of offering a conceptualized response to the nation's problems and consistency in implementing subsequent public policies.

Second, the party's constituency consists of different social and economic groups. They need to be united by some kind of party ideology which is believed to be capable of accommodating their various interests. It is a normal practice in politics that a political party should provide moral and ideological justifications for its policies once it comes to power.

Taking into account the plurality of its constituency and PDI Perjuangan's future role as an engine for Indonesian civil society, the party leaders now face the challenge to formulate a clear and coherent ideological platform. For instance, how can the party combine a market economy and people-centered economic development? How can the idea of self-reliance go together with Indonesia's increasing integration into the world capitalism? If PDI Perjuangan claims to represent the interests of wong cilik (the grassroots), how can such a populist orientation be realized without being hostile to market forces?

In many developed democracies like the United States, Australia, Japan, Britain, France and Germany, there is always competition between two major political parties with different ideological orientations. Normally a conservative party is countervailed by another party with a populist or socialist orientation.

Is PDI Perjuangan a dominant-conservative or dominant- socialist party? Given its close association with Sukarnoism and its popularity among the grassroots, the party tends to fall into the latter category. Given its long collaboration with big business and capitalists, the Golkar Party may represent the conservative camp.

If the above account is valid, then PDI Perjuangan can take on a new identity as a social democratic party. Democratic socialism, as promoted by the socialist democratic parties in the aforementioned countries, has gone through major reform. The most recent version of this political ideology tries to combine a market economy and reasonable state intervention.

For instance, under the leadership of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Labor Party has introduced some market-oriented economic policies without sacrificing an equal distribution of economic resources among different social and economic groups in Britain. As it turns out, the renewed Labor Party is much more popular than its predecessor.

Indonesia does need a modern political party which has a clear concept of how to develop the national economy amid the tremendous positive and negative consequences of economic globalization. As a social democratic party, PDI Perjuangan is expected to pay particular attention to poverty alleviation, human rights protection, labor welfare, women's role in economic development and environmental conservation.

The economic crisis has pushed millions of Indonesians below the poverty line. If PDI Perjuangan becomes the ruling party, a strong populist orientation in its economic policies is a must. At the same time, it will be expected to be capable of using every opportunity offered by the global market to ensure that a sufficient level of domestic economic growth can be sustained.

Adopting democratic socialism will be a real challenge for PDI Perjuangan. Still, it seems to be the only way to get rid of PDI Perjuangan's general image as the mere personification of its chairwoman, Megawati Soekarnoputri.

The writer is a lecturer in the School of International Relations at Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung.