M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Political parties have failed in their function as training grounds for future leaders of the country and instead serve only as power brokers, an analyst says.

Political analyst Saiful Mujani of the Indonesian Research Institute (LSI) said the fact that the country's established figures had no serious opposition showed that political parties had failed to produce and prepare new leaders.

"In our past surveys, we have fielded the names of young, and prospective politicians... but only a small number of respondents chose them. They opted for famous figures," Saiful said in a discussion about the role of political parties in producing new leaders, on Friday.

He said the names of older figures such as Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Megawati Soekarnoputri, Amien Rais and Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid always appeared high on respondents' lists of preferences.

He said political parties nominated candidates on the basis of their public appeal and regardless of their quality. "The same is true in local elections. Political parties act merely as agents which promote any candidate from any political affiliation. We even see members of certain parties being nominated by rival parties," Saiful said.

National Mandate Party (PAN) member and legislator Muhamad Najib agreed with Saiful. He said that the task of finding future leaders was to important and big to be left in the hands of political parties.

"Do not let political parties set their own criteria for candidates, they will only impose their interests on the candidates," Najib said.

He said that at present most political parties were preoccupied with requirements that were barely relevant to what would be required in public office.

"We are still busy with Javanese-non Javanese, civilian-military, businessman-politician divisions, criteria that have little to do with the interests of our nation," he said.

After the departure of Amien Rais from PAN, the party started to float young politicians such as Transportation Minister Hatta Rajasa and economist-turned-lawmaker Didiek J. Rachbini as its future leaders.

Party head Sutrisno Bachir has even suggested the names of several younger party members as candidates for vice president in the 2009 presidential election.

Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa of the Golkar party said that regardless of their political affiliation, the country's future leaders needed to have the character traits that he believed current leaders lacked. "They must be intelligent, honest and brave," he said.