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Commentary: PDI-P congress and struggle for party solidity
âAre any of you going to Bali to cover the national congress of the PDI-P in early April?â I texted a journalist group mailing list late last month, referring to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
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'Are any of you going to Bali to cover the national congress of the PDI-P in early April?' I texted a journalist group mailing list late last month, referring to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle.
The top tourist island was designated to host the party's internal supreme decision-making forum this year for the umpteenth time. The congress will proceed throughout this weekend.
Responses popped up on my screen, with the refrain: no, we aren't going.
That was a surprise. First of all, it was the congress of the party that won the 2014 elections, granting it at least some political weight. Secondly, it was to be held in Bali, a favorite destination for Indonesians and foreigners alike.
The choice of Bali was not without good reasons. Bali is one of the two strongholds for the PDI-P, beside Central Java. It is the only province that has always granted the party electoral victory at the provincial level since the beginning of the post-1998 reformasi era. The island is, moreover, a favorite place for party chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri. It's like a second home for her, and the majority of Balinese people love and respect her because of the Balinese blood of her father, founding Indonesian president Sukarno.
However, my fellow senior journalists clearly did not expect any extraordinary results from the congress, with leading PDI-P officials having reiterated that Megawati would be once again nominated for the top party leadership post. My colleagues felt, clearly, that they could simply rely on their reporters and the newswires.
Her expected re-election meant Megawati would have been at the party's helm for a consecutive 21 years by the end of the next five-year party leadership period in 2020. And it would be a combined 24 years in command if her previous three-year party leadership under the flag of the preceding Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) was included.
Megawati was elected PDI chairwoman following a dramatic 1993 congress in Surabaya, East Java, serving until 1996, when a government-sanctioned congress removed her from the party leadership. After a three-year legal battle for constitutional legitimacy to win back her PDI leadership was lost, she decided to establish the PDI-P in 1999, and has continued to be its chairwoman until today.
However, I disagreed that the congress would be totally boring; party congresses, particularly those of leading political parties, always have surprises in store: strong and explosive quotes from party leaders or their opponents, unique gestures and body languages of people inside and outside the congress arena and, in some cases, physical altercations.
This PDI-P congress should not be an exception. The congress, apart from being the party's constitutional mandate for a five-yearly supreme decision-making mechanism, is held at a critical time for the PDI-P. It is a dilemmatic period for party leaders, particularly Megawati, because as the election victor that successfully catapulted its cadre Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo to the 2014-2019 presidency, the party has not been able to enjoy the luxury of being a ruling party.
The PDI-P has instead been embroiled in a complicated, love-hate relationship with the State Palace over a number of state affairs and management issues. First, the PDI-P was not in full control of the appointment of the new Cabinet members and had to share the cake with other parties that were part of the government coalition.
Another issue has been the canceled nomination of Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, a former adjutant of Megawati while she served as president from 2001 to 2004, for the National Police chief post. President Jokowi eventually canceled Budi's nomination amid pressure from anticorruption activists and the general public.
Last was the controversy surrounding the appointment of presidential directors and commissioners of a number of state-owned companies, with some PDI-P and coalition party activists complaining that members of coalition parties have been neglected in favor of external candidates.
One of the reasons for Megawati's repeated nomination is the fact that no one else within the party has the capacity to solidify the PDI-P. The party, and perhaps Megawati herself, has succeeded in grooming a number of regional figures as rising stars in domestic politics, including former Kebumen regent and Central Java deputy governor Rustriningsih, Jokowi himself, incumbent Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo and Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini.
But, none of them, or Megawati's daughter Puan Maharani or her media-shy son Muhammad Prananda Prabowo, apparently have the same ability as Megawati to command mass support.
The PDI-P, as Megawati and several party leaders have said, is using this congress as the momentum to regain party solidity in the aftermath of all that political turbulence. The congress is therefore of paramount importance and remains an interesting political event for experts and the general public to monitor and analyze.
If only a few journalists cover the event, how will the public get enough information on what's going on during the congress and its results? Hopefully we won't have to rely on sound bites and videotaped clips produced and uploaded on social media by party members and supporters.
