Jakarta – An independent legal system and strong mass organizations could prevent Indonesia's oligarchy from dominating politics, an American democratic activist says.

Indonesia has been a democracy for 13 years following the fall of president Soeharto in May 1998 after 32 years of rule, but there is still widespread poverty in the nation.

Capgemini – a Merrill Lynch world wealth report – showed that in 2010 Indonesia had 43,000 rich people (with assets of more than US$1 million), which is about 0.2 percent of the population. Their combined wealth equals 25 percent of Indonesia's gross domestic product.

Jeffrey A. Winters, a professor of political science at Northwestern University in the United States, said the wide gap between the rich and the poor in Indonesia had created oligarchs in Indonesia's democratic system.

The oligarchs, using their wealth, would seek to gain access to power through political parties as a way to protect their wealth. That leaves Indonesians with only oligarchs to vote for in the elections, he said.

"We cannot 'delete' oligarchy by taking their private property rights because that is against democracy itself, but we can use a strong legal system to 'tame' oligarchs," he said during a public discussion at Atma Jaya Catholic University in Jakarta.

To build a potent law, he said, Indonesia had to enforce its court and legal system. "For instance, Indonesia has to double the penalty for law violations by judges, prosecutors and policemen," he said.

"If they appeal, they will have to file their appeals to a special court comprising professional judges and prosecutors from other countries, preferably from Southeast Asian countries, who were deliberately hired to 'judge the judges'."

In addition to empowering the law, Winters said the public needed to have organizations and leaders from outside the structure ruled by oligarchs and elites. Indonesians also must be able to elect individuals not tied to political parties.

"As a control system, the voters have to have the rights to recall their representatives both in regional and national levels to increase pressure on the representatives. In the way the representatives would have to be responsible to their voters, not only to their parties," he said.

He said independent presidential candidates should be allowed. "That could open doors for strong figures who don't belong to any parties to compete in the election."

Winters mentioned individuals like Rizal Ramli, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Anies Baswedan and Adnan Buyung Nasution as potential leaders for Indonesia. Those who don't get support from political parties can gather support and funds from their supporters, he said.

"To avoid money politics, you have to limit how much money a supporter can give to the candidate. Like in America, you can't give more than US$4,000 to a candidate," he cited, adding that US President Barack Obama was an example of how a candidate who was not rich but was able to secure funds for his campaign from his supporters.

However, he warned that building a strong law in a democratic system would be much harder than toppling a dictator. "But I am sure, once oligarchs are 'tamed', Indonesian economic growth could increase by more than 10 percent, otherwise Indonesia will not take off," he said. (swd)