Lilian Budianto, Jakarta – The increasing involvement of businesspeople in Indonesian politics is seen as a positive trend for the country to help address the problem of poverty.
A discussion here Saturday heard that the political role of entrepreneurs would have a positive influence to the way politicians develop the nation, the world's third biggest democracy.
Anas Urbaningrum, coordinator of Our Indonesian Caucus (KaKi), told the forum entrepreneurs could contribute their business skills and familiarize political parties with economic issues to improve prosperity. KaKi, a non-governmental organization, hosted the discussion, "100 Years of the Nation's Awakening: Revitalizing and Reactualizing the Nation's Spirit".
Also speaking at the event were Didik Supriyanto, deputy chief editor of news portal detik.com, actress and activist Nurul Arifin and entrepreneur Haryadi Sukamdani.
Poverty remains one of the country's main problems. According to the National Statistics Bureau, 16.6 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
"Democracy will connect the issue of prosperity if political parties have the necessary skills to face the realities in society," said Anas, who is also deputy chairman of the Democratic Party.
At a separate discussion, Paramadina University rector Anis Baswedan said more and more entrepreneurs were becoming involved in politics in the reform era. He said they could eventually come to dominate politics, a field currently controlled largely by politicians with activist backgrounds.
Baswedan said this trend was a good sign for the future of Indonesian politics because businesspeople were more result-oriented and could be better suited for finding solutions to many of the country's problems. Activist-turned politicians, he said, focused more on ideological concepts in running the country.
Also hailing the political role of business players was Didik Supriyanto. He said, however, the media should keep a watch on this phenomenon to prevent businesspeople from using politics to benefit their business interests.
"The media should serve as a social control to oversee the political activities of everyone involved inside," said Didik, who is a former chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI).
However, he said some media companies would have trouble playing this role. "Most television stations are owned by groups that are still part of Soeharto's New Order regime," he said.
Although it has been 10 years since the late Soeharto stepped down as president in 1998, many of his former associates still control electronic media companies and occupy strategic positions in the government.
"We can still rely on the print media for fairness, but the problem is that the print media is only accessed by 10 percent of Indonesian citizens while television stations are accessible to 80 percent," Didik said.
He said the media also had limited access to government information, which prevented it from serving its control function.
"Much information is categorized as state secrets although it is not," he said. Hotel owner Haryadi Sukamdani said the political world was not really a convenient place for entrepreneurs, because money politics was common and businesspeople could fall victim.
"Businesspeople will become targets of extortion if they enter this world," said the president director of PT Hotel Sahid Jaya. "However, I think their involvement will give color to the political world."