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As Indonesian democracy matures, its politics feels like take your child to work day
It is almost a given for analysts, journalists and the average person to blame this cluster of oligarchs for the country's economic and political predicament.
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Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Central Board member Puan Maharani (left) and chairman of the Democratic Party Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (right) meet in an event in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on June 18, 2023. (Antara/Asprilla Dwi Adha)
Much has been written about Indonesia’s business oligarchy, an academic concept employed to explain the situation where a small cluster of elites controls most of the wealth in the country, so significant is the size of this wealth that members of this elite group can exercise significant control over the country’s politics
It is almost a given for analysts, journalists and the average person to blame this cluster of oligarchs for the country's economic and political predicament.
It is interesting to note that the word oligarchy is popular while we have a leader like President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, a populist politician who was elected into office, strangely enough, due to his campaign promise to break the dominance of Jakarta's elite.
His profile as a mayor from a small town in Central Java, helped Jokowi project an image of a politician that would upend the political establishment.
Yet, as we focus too much on business oligarchs, we lose sight of another type of oligarchy, a benign type operating in the country's party-based political system. Despite its harmless appearance, this oligarchic structure has deleterious impacts on the country’s path toward a mature democracy.
A healthy democracy requires the participation of robust political parties competing in elections, and that parties or collections of parties design political programs with which voters can align their interests.
The problem is that while political parties externally are willing to contest elections, internally most political parties refuse to allow free competition to enable a regular turnover of party leadership.
