The emergence of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party as the clear winner of the recent legislative elections, has given rise to hopes of rapid major changes in the resources-rich Sumatra Island.
To local political analysts, the party’s haul of least 20 percent of legislative seats at the provincial, regency and municipal levels signals a weakening of old hands the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which have long dominated local politics.
The Democratic Party, winning in North Sumatra, Riau, Jambi and Bengkulu, and coming in second in West Sumatra, South Sumatra and Lampung, is expected to challenge for the leadership seat in the legislatures and also for major changes in development programs with local governments.
Muhammad Natsir, the party’s Riau head, said his party would battle all out for pro-people and pro-environment budgets and development programs, despite the absence of the party’s regional heads on the island.
He added that along with other parties or on its own, the Democratic Party would pay more attention to the poverty and environmental issues in North Sumatra and Riau, and on the acceleration of agricultural development in South Sumatra, Bengkulu and Lampung.
Despite the huge revenue from oil and gas exploration activities, 11.2 percent of Riau’s 4.5 million population still live below the poverty line, while hundreds of thousands of people, mainly from the indigenous Sakai tribe, are illiterate.
“The province produces 40 million barrels of crude oil annually, but almost 50 percent of the people cannot send their children to school,” Natsir said.
Despite the rich natural resources like oil and gas, Riau will no longer need special autonomy status, but will use its annual revenue funds from the exploration activities to speed up development in the transportation, education and health sectors, and generate more jobs to ease the unemployment rate.
Natsir also said the Democratic Party would revise the environment policy to halt the conversion of forests into oil palm plantations, and stop the province “exporting” smoke to Singapore and Malaysia, which has often angered the neighboring countries.
Riau University political analyst Ali Yusri said the victories of Thamrin, Jefri and Asrul, the former regents of Indragiri Hulu, Kampar and Kuantan Singingi, in the legislative polls would strengthen the party’s lobbying and role in the provincial legislature, to influence the provincial government to speed up the development in the province.
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