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With a united people’s front we can fight PDI-P and Golkar’s victory
[The following is a statement issued by the People’s Democratic Party (PRD) on April 13 on the outcome of the April 5 general elections. Although vote counting will not be completed until April 29, preliminary results indicated that the state ruling party under the dictatorship of former President Suharto, Golkar, will win a clear victory over President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).]
Although the results of the legislative results are not yet final it is certain that its victors are the political parties which to date have been anti-people, that is the largest party of fake reformists, the PDI-P and the largest party left over from the New Order regime, the Golkar party. Aside from these parties, the results also indicate a domination by other parties with links with the New Order such as the Democratic Party and the Concern for the Nation Functional Party (PKPB) along with reformist parties which have so far been proven to have failed in effectively struggling for the interest of ordinary people. The results are proof of what we have repeatedly said, that the 2004 general elections will not provide a solution to resolve the crisis of people’s welfare and the completion of the agenda or reformasi total.
Responding to these results, on April 10 the Alliance of 19 Political Parties for the Salvation of the Nation issued a statement rejecting the results of the April 5 elections. This was essentially because of the many cases of electoral fraud found during the campaign, on polling day and with the vote count. The PRD understands this position. That there must be a demand that all acts of fraud during the elections be investigated and the parties involved in this fraud be sanctioned. If this fraud is not dealt with in legal terms and those involved sanctioned politically consequence with be that the political outcome of the elections will be legally flawed. However the demand for a re-election will not resolve the issue because the outcome will not be very different and the acts of fraud will again be repeated.
Why is this so? The 2004 elections were planned to refresh the political legitimacy of the those in power who’s policies are increasingly unpopular in the eyes of the people. By what ever means they will fight to the death to win an election. The real error is located with the reformist parties themselves who did not want to make the elections a platform for programmatic consolidation to work through the urgent problems of the people and seek a political solution. Furthermore, the 2004 elections were not used as a platform to unite the pro-reformasi forces to build a united government of the poor. The 2004 elections instead became a reason not to unite and were characterised by the narrow ambitions of the parties.
The domination of Golkar and PDI-P in the 2004 elections must be seen as an error in reading the political reality which have been developing in the people’s consciousness. It is also true however, that Golkar and PDI-P justified using every possible means to win. From the start it could be seen that the electoral legislation was designed to make things difficult for the development of an alternative political force. In addition to this, the parties of the New Order, primarily Golkar and the fake reformist party PDI-P had been building up logistical support thorough corruption, collusion and nepotism such the funds embezzled from the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) by Golkar chairperson Akbar Tanjung and or PDI-P’s corruption, collusion and nepotism which characterised the entire process of privatisation or the horse trading which occurred in enforcing the law against the corrupters and others who misused their power. As a result their ability to utilise money politics and their ability to buy the mass media for their campaigns was enormous. PDI-P and Golkar also resorted to acts of thuggery and used legal institutions to damage party offices, to repress, terrorise and arrest pro-democracy activist in a number of cities including Solo (Central Java), Malang and Jember (East Java), Mataram (West Nusa Tenggara) and Jakarta.
However the more basic political reality which is being belittled by the new reformist parties is the fact that the entire political structure inherited from the New Order dictatorship benefited Golkar and PDI-P significantly. Golkar still enjoys the extensive political infrastructure inherited from the New Order in the smaller cities and villages which in relative terms have not yet been influenced by the reform movement and were the largest source of votes in the elections. Similarly, PDI-P has enjoyed its extended political infrastructure in the villages and small cities, primarily in Java, as a consequence of the growth of the reform movement in the urban centres between 1998 and mid-1999 which cased a decline in Golkar political bases in villages in Java. This kind of political situation left no other alternative except to broaden the united front throughout the country, but instead this was rejected by the reformist parties themselves. This reality is clear but also extremely difficult for the new reformist parties to understand.
The election results indicate clearly how the new reformist parties have been proven to underplay the important meaning of a united political front. The political significance of a united front which must be established on the basis of a tactical combination of the mass democratic movement and the political platform of the elections to effectively fight the remnants of the New Order and the fake reformists failed to be understood by the new reformist parties, also by a section of the student movement who rejected outright taking advantage of the political platform of the elections. As a result, on the one hand a united front as a strategic tool for the people’s struggle did not develop and on the other the parliamentary gains of the new reformist parties who did not want to unite was saddening.
Therefore the reformists must reflect on the results of the legislative elections and immediately increase the will to build and strengthen a people’s united front throughout the country. Because it can already be predicted that the results of the presidential and vice-presidential elections in September will not be very different. Since the period of the presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid to the 2004 elections, the conviction in and the tactics of struggle based on political actions which neglect the important meaning of the united front have been proven to have failed. Ignoring the clearly reactionary power structure which has come out of the elections is the same as abandoning the people to continued oppression by foreign economic colonialism, poverty and militarism.
Based on the above facts, the PRD calls on all mass democratic organisations, intellectuals, religious leaders and reformist parties: the Justice and Prosperity Party, the National Awakening Party, the Freedom Bull National Party, the Pioneer Party and the Indonesian Unity Party, to immediately build a united front, at the national and city level, to fight the power of PDI-P, Golkar and the other remnants of the New Order. With a united front which includes all elements of the reformist movement it is a plain as can be that what is needed is a united government of the poor as an answer to the outcome of the 2004 elections which are clearly against the political interests of the people and the people’s right to a decent life. As has been so plainly reflected in the results of the 2004 elections, the movement for reformasi total needs to be re-mobilised so we can fight PDI-P and Golkar’s victory.
s/- Yusuf Lakaseng, general
chairperson
Zely Ariane, secretary general
[Translated by James Balowski.]