IF IT WINS, PDIP WILL NEED SUPPORT OF OTHER PARTIES

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, March 17 (Antara) - The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) will need the support of other political parties if it wins next July 9 presidential race.          Therefore, it should not be over confident after naming the popular Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo as its presidential candidate. Even if it wins, Joko Widodo will need the support of others to maintain balance in the parliament.          "If PDIP wins the presidential race and Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, becomes president, it will still need others' support. In a multiparty presidential system like in Indonesia, the possibility of a political party becoming the single majority in the parliament is very small," political analyst of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Firman Noor, said over the weekend.          The PDIP should be clever in picking up a vice presidential candidate pair for Jokowi to avoid the repetition of its experience in the 1999 general elections.          In 1999 the PDIP won the general elections but it failed to win the presidential race because it did not have the majority support in the parliament.          At that time, Indonesia had not yet adopted a direct presidential election system, but had a system where it was the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) that elected the President.          "In the 1999 general elections, the PDIP won but it was only a pseudo-victory because the support for the PDIP presidential candidate Megawati Soekarnoputri was small, and she failed in the presidential race during the MPR session," Firman said.          So, the PDIP should not be too confident about Jokowi. It needs to offer the vice presidential post to other political parties, which will enable it to set up a coalition government. Thereby, the party can secure the majority support in the parliament.          According to senior researcher Dian Permata of the Founding Fathers House (FFH) institution, the PDIP could offer the vice presidential position to someone from the younger generation. The naming of Jokowi as a presidential candidate will give a chance for young candidates.          "This should end the old-fashioned Indonesian political culture, which used to pick presidential candidates from the political party's general chairmen or the chairmen of their law-making bodies,"  Dian noted in a discussion on the phenomenon and opportunities for younger figures in the 2014 presidential race.          Dian added that the party leaders had been conditioned since the reforms era to think that they would be the holders of the presidential candidate tickets. Thus, political party leaders such as Aburizal Bakrie of the Gokar Party, Prabowo Subianto of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) and Wiranto of the People's Conscience Party (Hanuara) were by tradition the holders of presidential candidates' tickets.       Therefore, the 2014 presidential race is the correct momentum for younger figures to emerge as the leaders of the nation. Indonesia will face complex problems at home and abroad, particularly with regard to neighboring countries and negotiations on mining work contracts with foreign firms.          Dian suggested that Jokowi should select younger candidates as his vice presidential running mate and as members of his cabinet if elected as president.          He should be able to trace the track records of the young figures before he selected them. This could help future government avoid being too slow in making a decision.         "Being young is identical to being strong, agile, fast and responsive. Jokowi belongs to the fast and responsive generation. If his vice president is not agile, it can be imagined what Indonesia's future will be like," Dian argued.         Young figures could come from political parties to reinforce the PDIP if it is elected to rule the country and to avoid heavy opposition in parliament. After all, according to Firman Noor, those who had previously supported Jokowi had begun to become critical.         "Many people had criticized and questioned the ability of Jokowi in leading Jakarta. Some, alleged that Jokowi did not have adequate managerial skills," Firman said.         The emerging criticism against Jokowi will become ammunition for his political rivals. It is not impossible for them to launch black campaigns against Jokowi. "It is easy in such a situation to expose to the public Jokowi's weaknesses," Firman stated.          Thus, it is quite possible in a multiparty system for the "lonely winner" to happen, namely a government that fails to secure the majority support from the parliament. This phenomenon happened during the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono-Jusuf Kalla government.     "Luckily however, when Kalla was named as vice president, he was successful in taking over the leadership of the Golkar Party so that the legislative support to the government became stronger," he explained.          Besides his alleged managerial weaknesses, there is also speculation that Jokowi was nominated as a presidential candidate only for a vote-getting strategy.         "This is in the sense that a political party picks up one of its cadres who performs better to build and promote its image and popularity, so that it will be loved by the people," Tunjung Sulaksono of the Yogyakarta Muhammadiyah University said.          Tunjung admitted Jokowi was the best among the candidates of his rival political parties. This is because many people were aware of the weaknesses of Jokowi's political rivals.           "So,  compared with the others, Jokowi looks the best. Moreover, Indonesia so far has never had a figure like Jokowi," Tunjung argued.          He said the announcement of Jokowi as the PDIP's presidential candidate also provided an answer to some people who sought their desired leaders. "This is why some people fully support Jokowi for president," Tunjung said.           In the meantime, political observer Arizka Warganegara of the Lampung University said it was good for Jokowi to select a vice presidential candidate pair from Islamic-based political party leaders.          "PDIP has a nationalist platform, so it will have the balance if it coalesces with political parties with religious platforms, particularly Islam," Arizka Warganegara remarked.          If PDIP coalesces with Islamic-based political parties, the people's support will become stronger across the country, argued Arizka.***1*** (T.A014/INE) EDITED BY INE (T.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 17-03-2014 19:22