Legislators, experts say RI democracy still disoriented

Indonesia is in grave danger of losing its democratic direction, as political parties and lawmakers are increasingly locked in struggles for influence, legislators and experts say.

At a discussion on democracy, legislator Eva Kusuma from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said Saturday that Indonesia’s democracy was at stake because lawmakers often opted to guard their own political parties’ interests rather than those of the nation.

“Democracy is supposed to be a tool to empower people and to improve social welfare. In reality, ours seems to be the opposite, as Indonesia’s poverty rate remains very high despite efforts to reduce it,” Eva said.

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), as of March, 31 million Indonesians were living in poverty.

Ways in which the country and its leaders exercise democracy were starting to depart from the 1945 Constitution, which ensures, among other things, the wellbeing and religious freedom of all citizens, Eva said.

“We can see Indonesia will not be able to reach its Millennium Development Goals by 2015. This is a sign that we are failing to improve people’s welfare.

“I think we need to put our democracy back to the right track by basing it on the Constitution,” Eva said.

Legislator Teguh Juwarno from the National Mandate Party (PAN) said the plan to increase the parliamentary threshold from 2.5 to 5 percent would jeopardize democracy, and would possibly lead Indonesia’s government to become an oligarchy.

“If the threshold goes up to 5 percent, democracy will be steered by only a handful of members of the political elite from the major political parties such as Golkar, the Democratic Party, and the PDI-P” Teguh said.

PAN is one of the well established political parties that suffered comparable defeats in the last legislative elections, gaining less support than they received in 2004, with only around 6.4 percent of the total votes in 2009.

Anticipating the major parties’ plan to increase the parliamentary threshold, PAN is reportedly planning to form a political confederation with smaller parties for the next legislative elections.

Indonesian National Youth Committee chairman Ahmad D. Kurnia said it was about time for Indonesia to determine what form of democracy was suitable for its people.

“When are we going to be ready to move on from the so-called ‘democratic transition’ period? I think Indonesia must be ready because, if the [transitional] process takes too long, the people’s trust in the government will diminish.”

Meanwhile, Andrianof A. Chaniago, a political expert from the University of Indonesia, said one way to revive Indonesia’s democratic values and character would be to revamp the ways in which political parties operate.

Such a process should start with a review of the internal politics of political parties, since many of them were trapped in oligarchies and elusive democracies, without inching toward a consolidation. (tsy)