Pitan Daslani – This year has been one of tight scrutiny for Indonesia's political parties which are being blamed for most of the damage the nation has suffered in political, economic social and even moral fields.
The nine political party factions in the House of Representatives entered 2012 with the determination to accelerate the creation of a good governance culture, only to discover later that they were the actors that should be judged.
Amid legislators' proclamations for an anti-corruption culture this year, the judiciary system dumped many appointed and elected officials in jail and the presidential office announced that the parties were setting bad examples because many of their teams were corrupt.
The most corrupt parties, according to Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam, were the Golkar Party, Indonesian Democracy Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the ruling Democratic Party (PD), the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB).
Seen from the perspective of the number of executive regional leaders in jail, 36.35 percent came from Golkar, 18.18 percent from PDI-P, 11.36 percent from PD, 9.65 percent from PPP, 5.11 percent from PKB, 3.97 percent from the National Mandate Party (PAN) and 2.27 percent from Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).
That was the situation between October 2004 and September 2012, when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued 176 permits for the Attorney General's Office to prosecute district and regency chiefs, mayors and governors.
Those 176 presidential permits led to the indictments of 103 mayors and district chiefs, 31 vice mayors and vice district chiefs, 24 members of the legislative body, 12 governors, three vice governors, two senators and one judge of the Constitutional Court. They did not include the indictment of the ruling-party politician Angelina Sondakh, or Siti Hartati Murdaya, a member of the party's advisory committee. Nor did it include the party's secretary and former Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng.
Not surprisingly, several opinion polls have concluded that many people think political parties ruined the nation's progress while greedily taking advantage of state resources.
Ironically, political parties are the machines that supply the bodies that fill key positions in the government and parliament. They are the ones that have the legal right to appoint the president and vice president, governors, mayors, district chiefs and leaders in other strategic positions.
Governors and deputy governors of the central bank, commanders of the military, and the chief of National Police are all appointed or approved by political parties – an indication of the extent of power the nation has given to its parties.
And the biggest tragedy in this country is that political parties are the institutions most often ridiculed for their lack of integrity.
In terms of respondents' satisfaction over state institutions' performance, 79.1 percent of the thousands of people polled said the government performed badly, while 84.6 percent said the House of Representatives performed even worse. Meanwhile, 78.4 percent said political parties were useless.
That poll, the most comprehensive this year, found that political parties only garnered 16.7 percent of respondents' trust while the House gathered 21.7 percent. This is why even Marzuki Alie, the speaker of the House, said that "70 percent of House members are pembawa petaka [carriers of disasters]."
That's not all. Unqualified recruitment means that cadres of political parties that occupy the parliament are not necessarily the right people in the right place.
Simple proof is that during the 2004-2012 period, almost 60 laws that were produced were annulled by the Constitutional Court because the laws went against the constitution.
Given this situation, Indonesia has been taken hostage by the laws that authorized political parties to form the government and parliament because the laws did not allow for streamlining of political parties to ensure their credibility and integrity.
As a result, scrutiny of the parties is done by the public at large in the sense that voters would abandon those parties that fail to deliver and set good precedents of justice, morality and integrity.
This was clearly visible in the recent Jakarta gubernatorial election. The ruling Democratic Party, Golkar, PAN, PPP and PKS with all their might, facilities and influence supported Fauzi Bowo, but this camp was defeated by Joko Widodo who rode on PDI-P and Gerindra vehicles.
What would these new developments mean for the next legislative election in April 2014? It means, very plainly to many political pundits, that the aspirations of political parties are not necessarily the same as those of the increasingly educated public at large – in fact, in most cases they contradict one another.
It's time political parties learned that unless they upgrade their recruitment process, voters will abandon them, political observers have said. An enlarged floating mass indicates that dissatisfaction with political parties has reached an alarming level, they said.
In such a situation, voters would want to look for alternative avenues to channel their aspirations. They would find such avenues either in mass and non-governmental organizations, public forums or in new political parties that will participate in the next elections.
Not surprisingly, the outcome of the next legislative elections will differ greatly from that of 2009 elections.
The Democratic Party may not necessarily be the ruling party again, given the damage inflicted by its own cadres. The fact that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – whose popularity is much greater than that of his party – cannot run for a third term will seriously trim people's trust and sympathy for the Democrats. Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum's declining reputation over allegations of corruption will aggravate the situation.
On the contrary, the PDI-P will presumably get more support due to a recent boost by Joko who could be a potential candidate for presidency. Its consistent advocation of pro-poor programs has boosted its image further.
Golkar will likely remain stable and may perform better due to its consistent pioneering of legal supremacy issues – its politicians have been championing the anti-corruption drive despite the fact that some of its own cadres went to jail for corruption.
Wiranto's People's Conscience Party (Hanura) might have difficulty raising its profile given the former presidential candidate's somewhat declining acceptability in certain circles amid the aggressive rise of Prabowo Subianto, whose Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) is expanding.
Surya Paloh's National Democrat (NasDem) Party may be a good escape, especially for voters who are fed up with old parties' empty promises. NasDem could even be among the big five in 2014, analysts say.
Putting aside maneuvers toward 2014, the most crucial issue that parties need to address is political professionalism and management accountability.
The parties' vested interests are the reason Indonesia has difficulty grooming the right people to become national leaders, because they determine that only a party or coalition of parties that gets 25 percent of votes or 20 percent of parliamentary seats may propose presidential and vice presidential candidates.
But given that political parties are protected by the Constitution – and are even constitutionally mandated to conduct political education – for many years to come Indonesia will still rely on such parties to form the government and parliament.
All the state policies – be they in business and economy, politics, legal and security affairs, education, religion and other aspects of national life – will still be formulated by cadres of such political parties in the government and parliament.
Many have agreed that if the country wanted to create good governance, it needs to begin by creating it in political parties.
Likewise, analysts said, given that government decision makers are cadres of political parties, there need to be efforts to clean the parties on the upstream level starting from the recruitment process, so that their downstream output will not be too disappointing.