Indonesia Today: Challenges of History

8 PARTIES AND PARLIAMENT: SERVING WHOSE INTERESTS?

Political parties and the parliament are key elements of Indonesia’s democratisation . In the two years since Soeharto’s downfall, the roles of both have changed dramatically. Parties have proliferated and been freed from state manipulation; they are now the central players in Indonesian politics where once they were either instruments of the New Order regime or largely impotent ‘opposition’ parties. Parliament has gone from a ‘rubber stamp’ institution that was compliant to the government’s wishes to being an assertively independent legislature with the power to review and restrict executive actions. The expanded role of parties and parliament has prompted heated debate in political, academic and NGO circles about the quality of their performance. Critics have questioned the commitment of major parties to consolidating democracy, claiming they are too focused on narrow electoral politics and the quest for power rather than creating a fair, open and stable political system (Media Indonesia, 17 May 2000). The growing tension between the Abdurrahman Wahid government and the parliament over issues of executive accountability to the legislature has also sparked widespread debate about the delineation of powers and the effectiveness of Indonesia’s political institutions . This chapter examines the performance of parties and the parliament from both a contemporary and a historical perspective. Historical comparisons have not featured prominently in the recent debate about political institutions and democratisation, but when they have been made, the usual period of comparison has been the New Order years (1966–98). I would argue, however, that it is more fruitful to compare the current parties and parliament with those of the 1950–57 period, when Indonesia had a liberal democratic system. This period more closely approximates present conditions than the authoritarian Guided Democracy (1957–66) and New Order regimes and thus provides a 8 PARTIES AND PARLIAMENT: SERVING WHOSE INTERESTS? Greg Fealy* 97 AA/Part2 23/3/01 6:25 PM Page 97 better vantage point for analysing political change and continuity. In joining this debate, I am mindful of how little research has been completed on the contemporary party and parliamentary systems. Although numerous scholars are currently studying aspects of these topics, few findings have been published as yet. As a result, much of my consideration of these matters rests on impressions and scattered anecdotal information rather than detailed research. For the purposes of this chapter, discussion of parliament is restricted to the national legislature, the People’s Representative Council (DPR), and does not include regional legislatures.1 Indonesia’s supreme decision-making body, the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), is also excluded on the grounds that it has neither continuing overview of government activities nor a legislative function, two of the core tasks of a parliament.2 DEFINING THE FUNCTIONS OF PARTIES AND PARLIAMENTS Before discussing the performance of Indonesia’s parties and parliament, some consideration should be given to the normative roles of parties and legislatures in a properly functioning democracy, as well as the constitutional and legislative framework within which they operate in Indonesia. For political parties, the most obvious function is that of gaining or maintaining power through elections. This involves a range of activities, including the nomination of legislative candidates, the conducting of election campaigns and the persuasion of voters about the relative strengths of a party’s candidates or policies and the relative weaknesses of its opponents’. But it is the ‘non-electoral’ functions of parties that are of more interest to this discussion. Chief among them is the unification and representation of a range of interest groups. By articulating the demands of various interest groups, parties can bring them into the political system and act as a safety valve for grievances, thus ensuring political stability and order. A second important function is to serve as a link between government and the people, particularly by passing on demands of interest groups to the executive and explaining government policies to the community. Parties can educate and activate the electorate, reaching politically inactive citizens and leading to greater participation. Third, parties carry out political recruitment, not only of members but also of cadres to be groomed for leadership roles. The main legislative framework for parties in the post-Soeharto era is the Political Parties Law of 1999 (Undang-Undang No. 2/1999). It defines the aims and roles of parties in Indonesian democracy and includes many of the elements referred to above. Parties, it states, are organisations formed voluntarily by Indonesian citizens to ‘struggle for the interests of both their members and...