Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Political analysts said Tuesday that fewer political parties would lead to a more effective government. A higher election threshold along with incentives for parties to amalgamate and quality improvements were among their suggestions.
Speaking at a seminar on simplifying the country's party system at a book launch held by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), they agreed that the existing multi-party system had resulted in an unstable and ineffective presidential regime.
The House of Representatives is awaiting drafts from the government to amend laws on political parties and elections.
In the 1999 election, 148 parties registered, 48 contested the election and 21 won seats. In 2004, 261 parties registered, 24 participated and only 16 won seats.
This, said LIPI analyst Syamsuddin Harris, did not bode well for Indonesia's presidential system because of the polarization that reflected not the distinct ideology of the parties but their short-term interests.
"Parties become brokers instead of a medium to nurture future political leaders and are simply a means to bargain for power rather than to provide alternative policies," he said.
Instead of adopting a presidential system, the government often goes through a costly political bargaining process with numerous House factions just to get key policies through.
Syamsuddin suggested setting a higher electoral threshold, currently at 3 percent of total seats in the House, for parties wishing to join the next election, and banning the leaders of failed parties from creating new ones for two elections.
"The laws should also ensure political incentives for these failed parties to fuse or join the bigger ones. If a failed party joins a large one, the votes it garnered must be noted by, for instance, allocating seats or posts in the management," he said.
University of Indonesia analyst Arbi Sanit said a dual-party system, in which one supports the government and the other opposes, would ease the decision-making process.
"A simple political process drives quicker solution-finding for major problems and achievements. Competition between two parties allows clarity in public support so social and political changes can take place in a simple and aimed fashion," he said.
Arbi disagreed with arguments that multiple parties gave the diverse Indonesian people many choices to channel their political views, saying that parties were supposed to integrate the nation.
J. Kristiadi of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said the dilemma in downsizing the number of parties was the absence of quality, thus a swift figure-cutting mechanism might affect the emergence of more qualified parties. "This is where quality improvement comes in. More importantly is building a more rational basis for support, support should be thrown based on ideologies toward improving the quality of life rather than on primordial reasons," he said.
The analysts also agreed that the political party and election laws should encourage parties to develop themselves through political education and push for the creation of local parties to contest the local legislative and executive elections.