Dicky Christanto and Adianto Simamora, Jakarta – Party officials have admitted to placing ideology on the back burner as they move to build the crucial coalitions required to secure power.
Shared concern surrounding the implementation of the national agenda in the future is what really counts, a number of politicians have suggested.
"Our party welcomes any party regardless of its ideology as long as both sides can agree on the national agenda, which we consider more important," Secretary General of the National Mandate Party (PAN) Zulkifli Hasan told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
He said PAN would not waste its votes carelessly building an alliance with a party which could not demonstrate a clear agenda. The party has taken a cautious step and is surveying candidates to determine whether they fit the criteria for its future partnership.
The PAN national agenda includes, for example, allocating Rp 1 billion to each village throughout the country in a move, PAN executive Didik Rachbini explained, aimed at strengthening the grassroots economy.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) executive Effendy Simbolon said interests rather than ideology would be the determining criteria when assessing any potential coalition with a party. "A national working agenda is a key requirement that will be taken into account," he said.
Another factor will be the track record of any potential coalition party. "I believe there is no such thing as ideological differences nowadays. As we can see, most parties share a similar concern for their people," Effendy said.
PDI-P is seeking an alliance with Golkar Party and the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, which are nationalist-oriented. PAN, meanwhile, is moving toward the Democratic Party and Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).
Commenting on the failure of parties to maintain their faith in ideology, executive director of the Reform Institute, Yudi Latif, said ideology had long been replaced by political pragmatism.
"All the party executives care about is how to achieve more votes, political power and a closeness with capital owners rather than, for instance, struggling to uphold party ideology," he said.
He added that being pragmatic was unavoidable and one of the only ways to survive in the current political environment. "The need to preserve the party's existence often becomes the motive for pragmatic behavior, especially having entered the reform era. Things are more transparent now," he said.
Political expert from the University of Indonesia Maswadi Rauf said coalitions were only really necessary in the short-term purpose for parties to win the July presidential election and did not aim to fulfil the desires of constituents.