Green Left Weekly - June 23, 1999
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Golkar rejected in Indonesian poll
By Max Lane
As counting of votes in Indonesia's June 7 election continues,
more and more reports are emerging of vote rigging and cheating
by the ruling Golkar party. The University Rectors Network for a
Fair Election identified electoral violations in more than 20% of
the 2590 villages it monitored.
Among the violations were intimidation, violence and the use of
fake ballot papers. In some areas, election monitors reported
that village chiefs had threatened people. In numerous districts,
the total number of votes has been greater than the number of
registered voters.
In the provinces of North Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, South-east
Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Bengkulu (in Sumatra) and West Sumatra,
there have been demonstrations demanding a re-run of the
election. There have been similar demonstrations in Surabaya,
East Java.
In North Sulawesi, the election commission has announced that
there will be a repeat election, but this has yet to be agreed by
the national authorities. Some recounts have also been ordered in
Jakarta.
With such methods, Golkar may be able to claw its way to second
place after Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party-
Struggle (PDI-P).
The Golkar-dominated outgoing parliament established a
gerrymander that gives the less populated outer provinces, where
reformasi has not yet reached and the Golkar-military-civil
service machine remains relatively intact, a disproportionately
high number of seats.
Although Golkar may lag 15-25% behind the combined vote of the
PDI-P and Abdurrahman Wahid's National Awakening Party (PKB), it
may have almost the same number of seats in the new parliament.
Popular rejection of Golkar
===========================
The combined vote of the PDI-P, PKB and the other large anti-
Golkar party, Amien Rais' National Mandate Party (PAN), is likely
to climb beyond 60%. These parties campaigned as an anti-"status
quo" (anti-Golkar) coalition. If PDI-P, PKB and PAN can reach
agreement, they can exclude Golkar from government.
The Muslim United Development Party (PPP), whose chairperson
remained in President B.J. Habibie's cabinet until just before
the election campaign started, also did everything it could to
distance itself from Habibie.
It demanded the release of People's Democratic Party (PRD) leader
Budiman Sujatmiko and issued a joint communiqui with other
parties saying that it would not support Habibie for president
later in the year. The PPP's vote of around 10%, plus that of a
range of small parties including the Islamic Justice Party, which
may win a parliamentary seat, would bring the anti-Golkar vote to
close to 80%.
Suharto's old allies
A striking feature of the elections was the inability of new
liberal democratic, social democratic and radical parties to
score significant votes. This was true even when they were led by
people with a high media profile, such as Muchtar Pakpahan's
National Workers Party (PBN) or Sri Bintang Pamungkas's United
Democratic Party (PUDI). Despite its high profile, including in
the media, the PRD, the country's main party of grassroots
activism, received a small vote.
It is likely that only five parties -- PDI-P, Golkar, PKB, PPP
and PAN -- will score more than 2% of the vote. According to the
elections legislation passed by the outgoing parliament, only
parties that win more than 2% of the vote can participate in
future elections.
The five big parties are all related to the political parties
that backed Suharto's seizure of power in 1965-6. Golkar was
established by the military in 1962 and became the ruling party
after Suharto seized power.
The PKB is based on the Nahdatul Ulama (NU), a mass rural-based
Islamic party that also supported Suharto's takeover and helped
suppress the Indonesian Communist Party and other left-wing
supporters of former President Sukarno.
The PPP and PAN are primarily based on the networks of the old
Masyumi party, which also backed Suharto. PAN contains a network
of intellectuals whose political lineage and outlook are linked
to the networks of the defunct Indonesian Socialist Party, which
worked closely with the military in 1965-6.
The PDI-P is based on the Sukarnoist Indonesian National Party
(PNI). The PNI was divided in 1965, one section supporting the
left and one supporting the military. Thousands of left-wing
Sukarnoists in the PNI were killed or jailed, leaving the party
in the hands of the right.
These forces concentrated in the PDI and PPP during the Suharto
period, although the NU left the PPP in the 1980s to become a
"social" rather than political organisation. They were gradually
edged out of power by Suharto.
While Suharto manoeuvred constantly to keep these parties
marginalised, they were able to maintain their infrastructures,
as has been confirmed by the election results, because they were
part of the Suharto system.
Radicals make gains
The PRD is not yet in a position to challenge the organisational
dominance of the big parties. The PRD decided to stand only 31
candidates in specific areas. The big five stood candidates in
all 462 seats.
The PRD was the only radical democratic party contesting the
election. In a period of only a few months, it expanded its
presence from 12 to 86 towns. The PRD's membership has expanded
many times over. It faces a huge challenge in educating and
consolidating its new members.
The PRD has consolidated its status as a legal party, with scope
to expand its organisation throughout the country. It has won
widespread popular respect and authority as the main grassroots,
campaigning political party. During the election campaign, its
actions in solidarity with striking workers received media
coverage and popular recognition.
Outside the PRD, radical sections of the student movement
boycotted the election, organising protests against the
government and in support of the demand for Suharto to be put on
trial.
The 10 million or so workers in the big industrial estate areas
have remained isolated from the political upheavals of the last
several months. Most have not been drawn into the political
mobilisations of the PDI-P, PKB or the PAN. Most of the hundreds
of thousands of people who joined these parties' election rallies
were unemployed, casual labourers, shop assistants and street
peddlers from the poor areas of Indonesia's big and middle-sized
cities.
While strike statistics have dropped since the economic crisis
hit Indonesia in late 1997, workers' protest actions have
continued and have regularly become major issues on the national
political agenda.
Even as the election count was taking place, several hundred
workers from Surabaya travelled the 15 hours to Jakarta to
protest outside the labour ministry. The detention of more than
100 of the workers was reported in the national media.
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