Jakarta – With President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party set to form a coalition with the Golkar Party and most of the middle-rank parties, the next executive branch of government will dominate the new House of Representatives, political experts have said.
Beside Golkar, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the United Development Party (PPP) have all expressed their intention to join the Democratic Party to support Yudhoyono's bid for re-election.
According to all quick count results, the Democratic Party will win with 20.5 percent of the total votes, followed by Golkar and the PDI-P with some 14 percent each. The PKS, the PAN and the PKB are next on the list with some 8 percent, 6.5 percent and 5 percent respectively.
Experts said Sunday with the coalition gaining over 50 percent of the total votes, and thus controlling the House, any government policies should pass smoothly through the legislative body.
"The situation is different now because the PD managed to gain the most votes. The party and its coalition will play a dominant role in the House," a political analyst from the Indonesian Institute for Science (LIPI), Lili Romli, said in Jakarta on Sunday.
The party's current situation is very different from the election five years ago when it could only garner around 7 percent of the votes. Although the party later formed a coalition with Golkar, the winner of the 2004 elections, it could do little to influence the House passing any proposals from Yudhoyono's administration, resulting in many of the government's planned policies being rejected during House sessions, and raising criticism Yudhoyono's government was not effective.
After the election, Yudhoyono stressed he wanted a strong coalition both in the executive and the House to ensure his next government could execute its programs without being hijacked by the legislators.
Lili, however, warned such a dominant ruling coalition could create a situation like that of Soeharto's New Order when the House simply acted as a rubber stamp for the government's programs.
"We need an opposition bloc as well in order to avoid a situation like the New Order era, in which the government dominated the parliament," he said.
A political analyst from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), J. Kristiadi, told The Jakarta Post that Yudhoyono's dominance in parliament would not lead to a situation that resembled the New Order's total hegemony. "During the New Order, there were no other political parties in parliament other than Golkar. Now, we have many to check the government," he said. (hdt)