What sort of coalition?

What sort of coalition?

Although no more than 30 percent of the vote from last week's
general election has been tabulated, the flow of new results is
unlikely to change the charted map of Indonesian political power.

The list of the big five is almost assured of remaining the
same, with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan) on top.

However, the tabulation of the rest of the vote from outside
Java, where Golkar still enjoys considerable popularity, could
lead former president Soeharto's longtime political mainstay to
bump the National Awakening Party (PKB) from second place. The
latter, which was established by the Muslim organization
Nahdlatul Ulama, may have to be satisfied with the gains from its
traditional base of support in East and Central Java.

With the present picture seemingly unlikely to change, the
focus is turning to the November session of the People's
Consultative Assembly, which will be followed by the formation of
a new government. However, no single party will be strong enough
in the polls to run the country on its own, which is why leading
political parties have started talking seriously about forming
coalitions to lead the country.

All the parties have declared that their main agenda will be
political reform, and every one of them also declared itself a
dyed-in-the-wool reformist. With these apparent common goals, it
should follow that there should be no problems in choosing
coalition partners.

Of course, it is not that cut-and-dried. Forging the desired
stable government will take more than grandly spouted slogans if
politicians are unwilling to sleep with decidedly strange
bedfellows.

PDI Perjuangan, for one, is far from being a true reformist
because it promises to oppose every effort to amend the 1945
Constitution even though analysts point to gaping flaws in the
hurriedly drafted document, used and abused by two dictators to
keep themselves in power. The party also is against any effort to
take legal action against Soeharto for corruption.

And most people find it hard to accept Golkar and the United
Development Party in their role as self-professed reformists,
with their staunch support of Soeharto's reelection last year
still stingingly fresh in their minds.

Outside the political groupings, most thinking Indonesians
agree that the real reformists are those who stood up and were
counted at the height of Soeharto's iron-fist rule. The
courageous few include the Group of 50 opposition activists, non-
governmental organization Pijar and Amien Rais, who later set up
the National Mandate Party (PAN). PDI Perjuangan leader Megawati
Soekarnoputri did fight the authoritarian regime but only after
it engineered her ouster from her party's leadership, a job she
landed thanks to the help of the military.

That is the past. Today, in facing Indonesia's immediate
future and its attendant complexities, differences should be set
aside. Loyalty to personal and party interests should end now
that loyalty to the country has begun.

One political observer believes an effective coalition could
be forged between PDI Perjuangan, PKB and PAN. Each would bring
complementary components -- the secular PDI Perjuangan with its
huge grassroots support would be balanced by the intellectual-
laden PAN and the religious qualities of PKB. It sounds logical
and, with good will and intent, it might pan out into a
successful reality. After all, where there is a will, there is a
way, even in the murky world of politics.