Anita Rachman – Members of the Democrat-led ruling coalition are broaching the need for a stronger, more solid grouping that would last beyond 2014, based on the Malaysian National Front.

Golkar member and People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) deputy chairman Hajriyanto Thohari said on Friday that the coalition should be "designed to be a more permanent coalition, such as Malaysia's Barisan Nasional [National Front]."

Malaysia's National Front is a political coalition made up of the country's three largest parties, led by the United Malays National Organization, the largest political faction. It is essentially an authoritarian coalition that has ruled the country continuously since independence.

Hajriyanto said the ruling coalition, which consists of six parties and was created shortly after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won his second term in office last year, does not have a substantial format as an organization yet.

It has recently established a joint secretariat with Yudhoyono as the head and Golkar leader Aburizal Bakrie as its managing chairman, but senior political figures in the body have taken pains to maintain that it would only be tasked with coordinating meetings among members to discuss and resolve disputes, such as the very public rift over the controversial Bank Century bailout that has shaken the coailtion's foundations.

Three of the six parties – Golkar, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP) defied the Democrats and voted in the House of Representatives to find the Rp 6.7 trillion ($723.6 million) Century rescue illegal.

In a systematically organized and legalized coalition, Hajriyanto said, each party would have their respective roles and benefits.

"Not only job descriptions, but also what will they get as the result, the political portions they will receive. It should be set very clearly," he said.

"If the secretariat is only established like this, without a substantial format, then it's only a political maneuver." With a solid foundation, the coalition can withstand the test of time, Hajriyanto said.

National Awakening Party (PKB) official M Hanif Dhakiri said that Malaysian and German models of coalitions were good examples to take as models.

"Why don't we design a better coalition that could survive for, say, 40 years? The more solid the coalition, the better opportunity for people to live more prosperously," he said, adding that was the reason PKB was sticking with the coalition.

"A strong coalition need not be totalitarian at all," he added. "The government and the opposition are competing to set the best policies for the people."

Some opposition figures and political observers expressed concerns over the suggestion, while others dismissed it as impossible.

"The problem is, who will benefit from it?" said Eva Kusuma Sundari, of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

"Is it just the coalition secretariat or the people in general? In Germany, there are strict agreements on what the coalition should do after the election, so it's not for individual interests, while this is only a transaction between Aburizal Bakrie and the president."

She predicted that the coalition would not last, especially when members do not have the same agenda and opinions on major issues.

Constitutional law expert Refly Harun said he thought the coalition secretariat would not even last until 2014. He said it is difficult to form a formal body such as Malaysia's National Front because Indonesia's system is presidential.

"Malaysia is running under a parliamentary system, and the National Front works from the low level, while here the coalition is held in the elite level," he said. "It's just for strategic reasons and a short time."

Refly said that when it comes to the 2014 election, the secretariat will split apart because the big parties would not want to be cast in the role of a junior partner in the group.

State administration expert, Irman Putra Sidin, said that if the secretariat were maintained it would be dangerous to Indonesian democracy. He added that it was likely the secretariat would end up dividing the House into two – the non-government and government factions.