Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Voters would be better served by smaller political parties joining together to form confederations rather than agreeing to be merged into larger parties, a political analyst said on Friday.
A realignment of the political landscape is currently under way as smaller parties grapple with a plan to raise the legislative threshold to 5 percent, from the current 2.5 percent. The legislative threshold is the number of votes a party must win to claim a seat in the House of Representatives.
Faced with the possibility of being shut out of power, some smaller parties have opened themselves up to being taken over by larger parties, like Golkar, which has already held talks with two smaller organizations.
But Yuniarto Widjaja, an analyst from Charta Politika, said Golkar's actions could harm the interests of grassroots members of smaller parties.
He said if Golkar's talks with the Indonesian Muslim Brotherhood (Parmusi) and the Reform Star Party (PBR) were successful and they joined the Golkar fold, the two parties would have to abandon their original ideologies. "Grassroots members have a strong connection with the ideologies of their parties," he said.
Yuniarto described the kinds of mergers being discussed by Golkar as acquisitions, and said regular members of smaller parties were unlikely to follow their leaders over to the new party.
He said the alternative was smaller parties banding together in a lager confederation, which would allow them to maintain their identities and serve the needs of their grassroots supporters.
"So long as a system that binds the confederation together is made permanent, a new flag, a new name, fair regulations, then that would be the best strategy," Yuniarto said.
Smaller parties know that if the 5 percent legislative threshold is approved, they will have to scramble to find new and creative ways to remain in politics while keeping their original ideologies, he said.
"So confederations are the best solution for reducing the number of parties while still allowing smaller parties an avenue to stay involved," he said. He added that Malaysia's Barisan Nasional and Japan's Liberal Democrats both existed under a similar confederation concept.
Separately, the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) said that it was in talks with 17 other small Christian-based parties to form a new alliance ahead of the 2014 general elections.
PDS chairman Denny Tewu said the talks were one strategy the party was exploring to help it meet the expected 5 percent legislative threshold. "We will try to convince them to form an alliance with us," he said.
In 2009, PDS lost its seat in the House of Representatives after failing to reach the 2.5 percent of the votes necessary under the current legislative threshold.
Meanwhile, the National Awakening Party (PKB) remains beset by internal conflict.
Senior party official Ikhsan Abdullah has criticized the latest reconciliation agreement signed by representatives of two rival factions within the party – one led by the current party chairman, Muhaimin Iskandar, and another that supports the principles of former party chairman Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, the late former president.
"The latest meeting was not a reconciliation, not by PKB as a party, but only by individuals. The meeting was only for the political benefit of certain people," Ikhsan said.
A source within PKB, who asked not to be identified, said the party was now dealing with a new feud. The source said this latest conflict began when Lukman Edy, who leads a faction in the party, felt slighted after Muhaimin tapped Helmy Faishal over him as a candidate for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's new cabinet in 2009.