Vice President pushes for simplified political system

Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 09/02/2008 10:23 AM | National

Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Monday reiterated a call to simplify the political system, saying the country had talked too much about politics but made less time for discussing economic issues.

Kalla argued the existing system, requiring citizens to take part in national and local elections about eight times in five years, was inefficient and cost the state too much.

"If there are too many elections, public participation will be low, while the economic cost to hold the polls will be high. Speaking as a businessman, this is not efficient," Kalla told participants in a training program organized by the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas).

"We need to simplify the political system so we can have more time to discuss economic growth."

Kalla, a businessman and chairman of the Golkar Party, said the country needed to stage the elections of village heads, regents, mayors and governors simultaneously nationwide to simplify the political system and boost voter turnout.

Less than 100 officials from various state agencies, political parties and businesses are taking part in the training program. The nine-month program, which began in January, will end this month.

Lemhannas governor Muladi said during the first three months of training, participants applied an e-learning system through the Internet.

From April, he added, participants attended classroom sessions and conducted a series of strategic studies at home and overseas, including in France, Vietnam and Laos.

Kalla stressed political debate could not be separated from discussions on economic, social and security issues.

"These issues are related to each other. You can't only focus on how to build political security in the country," he said.

The Vice President said no country measured its welfare by the number of political parties contesting elections.

"Welfare is measured by economic growth, unemployment or per capita income -- not by the number of political parties," he said.

There are 38 parties registered to contest the 2009 legislative elections, far higher than the two parties contesting this year's elections in the United States, Kalla added.

He blamed the collapse of the previous government mainly on the country's poor economic condition.

"In the past, no government collapsed from political problems. It is mostly due to economic conditions," he said.

He said the country's first president, Sukarno, who had strong political backing, was ousted after inflation reached 600 percent, causing prices of basic commodities to skyrocket.

Similarly, former president Soeharto was forced to resign in 1998 because of the Asian economic crisis, which devastated the nation and others in the region.

"But the governments of Malaysia and Singapore did not collapse in the aftermath of the Asian crisis because their economic conditions were better at the time," he added.

Kalla said if Indonesia's economic condition was to advance, it would be easier for it to build a strong political system.

"Just look at Japan and England: the two countries seem to be happy with their monarchies. It is because they have better economic systems," he said.

"But if anyone speaks of a monarchy in Indonesia, they will be killed."

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