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Political parties branded as reform's illegitimate riders

The country's 10 years of reform failed to achieve the main goal of providing prosperity for all, thanks to "instant leaders" and unconsolidated parties, a discussion concluded Tuesday

Dian Kuswandini and Maulina Sartika Pravitasari (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, August 20, 2008

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Political parties branded as reform's illegitimate riders

The country's 10 years of reform failed to achieve the main goal of providing prosperity for all, thanks to "instant leaders" and unconsolidated parties, a discussion concluded Tuesday.

"Parties are just illegitimate riders on the waves of reform because they don't share the same goals as the civil society," Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) political analyst, Syamsudin Haris said.

He said the current reform movement still belonged to the civil society, not the political groups, including parties and legislative councils.

"Parties are involved in developing democracy for short-term motives and only to benefit themselves, while the cost to democracy is expensive," Syamsuddin told the discussion organized by the Indonesian Muslim Student Movement (PMII).

He expressed concern over the increasing number of political parties competing for seats in the House of Representatives, with no specific ideology and offering the same old promises."

"One thing is for sure, all the new parties the country has now are actually 'spin-offs' of the old parties -- Golkar, the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) and the United Development Party (PPP)," he said.

It means, he added, that their ideologies are just similar to the old parties.

Syamsudin said the new parties were established as result of disappointment with the old ones.

"Former PPP cadres, for example, got disappointed and formed the Star Reform Party (PBR). But what are the differences between the two? Just their names and their party colors."

As the parties were born of internal conflicts, he said, they did not cooperate well, resulting in the failure of democracy.

Former Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung agreed, saying that the increasing number of political parties did not ensure that citizens gained prosperity.

"With the mounting conflicts among political parties, prosperity will remain a dream," Akbar said at the same discussion.

However, he said parties are still needed for the democratic process, as they bring people together for common purposes.

"Political parties serve as an entry point for legislative and executive positions, needed so that democracy can operate," Akbar said, adding that the most important thing is to educate citizens on politics.

Akbar said that despite specific rights for non-party candidates, this did not make any difference for the country.

"Instead, it has actually disrupted political parties," he added.

Syamsuddin also criticized legislative and executive candidates who used "instant means" to gain their political goals.

"It's funny nowadays that there are so many new candidates seeking popularity through the media (and advertisements) to win elections.

"A true leader of a nation should start from zero and take a long period to gain power," Syamsuddin said.

"This kind of instant selection of candidates has created popular but incompetent leaders," he added.

Syamsuddin urged political parties to establish a solid system of candidate selection in order to prepare competent leaders.

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