TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Our democracy seems to be getting messier during the run-up to the simultaneous regional head elections next June. Pragmatism is commanding politics. The energy of all those seeking to compete is being fully expended on lobbying political party chiefs in order to win their candidacy tickets. In essence, this election seems like an opening arena for political interests to compete in ahead of the general election for members of the legislature and the president in 2019.
The maneuvering in the process of nominating candidates to become the governors of West, Central and East Java, as well as of North Sumatra, illustrates these unhealthy practices in current politics. Well-known figures seeking to compete in the elections are fighting each other to gain the support of particular political parties. The party leaders, too, are no less adept at offering, and then withdrawing, their support to serve their own interests.
The story of Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil is just one such example. As the deadline for registration as a candidate for governor approached, he was still busily lobbying for the support of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to garner additional support. Ridwan, a popular figure in West Java, had to move quickly once Golkar withdrew its support of him. The party instead opted to join the Democrat Party in throwing its weight behind Deputy West Java Governor Deddy Mizwar. Before that, Deddy himself was left at his wits end once he was abandoned by the Gerindra party, which opted to champion retired Maj. Gen. Sudrajat.
Similar political acrobatics have happened in many other electorates- at the provincial, regency or city levels- where simultaneous elections of all the regional heads are to be held. Getting and giving essential support are now the most important issues of the hour. The interests and aspirations of the local public are given a back seat. The criteria for the most appropriate head for a region is also no longer a subject of discussion. Whether or not a particular candidate can bring relative prosperity to his electorate is never even mentioned.
No wonder the public in the regions feel alienated, more and more treated as if they are just spectators, since all this lobbying now also involves others’ interests, looking forward to the time when they must face the general parliamentary and presidential elections of 2019. Political parties are really thinking long and hard about that. Candidates also understand that. Commander in Chief of the Army Strategic Reserve Command Lieut. Gen. Edy Rahmayadi, for example, showed no hesitation when he spoke in public wearing the attributes of the Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS), which is supporting him as its candidate for Governor of North Sumatra. But, the very next day, he switched to wearing Golkar party attributes.
It is only natural, then, that the public is wondering whether any common vision, even if not one of ideology, can be developed between regional head candidates and their supporting parties in such a brief period of courtship. This getting and giving of support, after all, is only developed over some months, or weeks, or even days. The shadow of the battle ahead in the 2019 presidential election already looms large over these regional elections arena.
The coalition of Gerindra, the National Mandate Party (PAN), and PKS, who all appear to be still supporting Prabowo Subianto as their presidential candidate in the next general election, seem to be united in supporting the same candidates in several places now. To date, Prabowo is the only strong contender against Joko Widodo to become the next president in 2019. He is free to play all his cards as he is also the Chairman of the Gerindra Party. Jokowi is finding it harder to play his as he is not the PDI-P Chair. The decision on who can become candidates for the regional head from the PDI-P still lies on Megawati.
The results of the battles in the regional head elections, it must be acknowledged, will influence the electability of political parties and their presidential candidates in the 2019 General Elections. But a party’s current way of instantly embracing and supporting popular non-cadre figures as its candidates could later boomerang on it. In our democracy, the voting public will increasingly gravitate towards those figures, not the party. This is just a symptom of a more worrisome situation: a crisis in our party system. It is not just an issue of weak cadre formation, as the parties are also experiencing crises of ideology.
Do not be surprised to discover that the degree of the public’s closeness to political parties, or their party affiliations, in this country is still very low. The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems noted that in 2005, the level of identification with a particular party in Indonesia stood at just 12 percent and may now have slumped even further. Compare that with other democracies, such as the United States, where it is 57 percent, and Australia at 84 percent. This also explains why our voters can readily transfer their loyalties to other parties at each election.
The political acrobatics in the runup to these regional elections clearly illustrates the state of our moribund party system. The party leaderships' ought to have realized this by now. Developing a political party cannot be done instantly- simply by fighting to get popular figures to represent it in elections- but instead should have been based on a vision or ideology that affect the public interest. Taking a shallow pragmatic approach to garner support will only lead to a party becoming increasingly irrelevant to the public.
Read the full article in this week's edition of Tempo English Magazine