Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Standing as an independent candidate in a local election is the fastest path to power for those wishing to reform the country's bureaucracy, analysts told activist groups Friday.
Hundreds of former university students from across the country who joined forces in 1998 to topple president Soeharto and end his 32-year-long authoritarian regime are meeting here until Sunday.
They will discuss strategies to enter politics, their disappointment with Soeharto's successors, and legacy of the rallies that resulted in riots and the deaths of hundreds nationwide.
As students, they protested against Soeharto's regime, corruption and human rights abuses allegedly conducted by his children and cronies and demanded the improvement of welfare and the abolition of impunity for the police and military.
Political analyst M. Fadjroel Rachman said the Constitutional Court's recent ruling allowing independent candidates in regional election was an excellent chance for activists to take part in running the country.
"Most of you are in your late twenties or early thirties now, and that's old enough for you to get into the ring of power. (Former prime minister) Sjahrir was 36 when he led and (Sjahrir's then information minister) Setiadi was only 27. There's no other way to make changes than to have the reform activists as the policy makers," he said.
With dozens of provincial and regency elections around the corner, he said the first step was to muster support from fellow reform activists.
"Victory is plausible when the network of activists runs and interacts well because it will need everyone's support nationwide even if it's only for an election at one regency," he said.
Analyst Indra J. Piliang of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said a movement could not be sustained in the absence of a shared ideology, either socialism or capitalism, and this was worth of holding on to for future leaders.
"Our political system may have transformed, but not necessarily the nature of the parties, which remain without any ideology. With global changes, either you are a socialist or capitalist. A nationalist isn't a political ideology," he said.
Thus, Indra argued, years of nurturing an ideology by activists in society could prove to be successful when running for office rather than abruptly attempting to take over a legitimate, prevailing power.
The distribution of power through local autonomy, he said, is not going in an initial direction of sharing power at the central government with the local people but rather with local rulers who are essentially part of the old regime of Soeharto.
"The followers of Soeharto and his Golkar Party are strongly instilled in the regions. Many elites struggle for power in Jakarta, leaving hundreds of other regions in the hands of these people. As we see, autonomy is not empowering those at the grass root level," said Indra.
Secretary general of the 98 Center Adian Napitupulu said the meeting was aimed at challenging the country's youth to take control in order to create change.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, home to many activists, won the 1999 legislative election on the back of its so-called resistance to Soeharto and managed to put chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri in the presidential seat.
There was little improvement made to the economy during her administration, however, and she lost the 2004 election. She also did nothing to prosecute Soeharto, while many of her ministers and local officials have been brought to trial for graft.