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It looked like a case of déjà vu when
Democratic Party leaders, gearing up for the party’s extraordinary
congress in Bali next week, expressed their hopes for a unanimous
decision on a successor for Anas Urbaningrum, who resigned as party
chairman after being named a corruption suspect last month.
Syariefuddin Hasan, a member of the party’s supreme council, foretold the
likely scenario of the change of leader after a meeting called by the
party’s paramount council chairman, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,
on March 17. Since then, the issue has become a trending topic, at least
among executives and rank-and-file Democrats. “God willing, there will be
a consensus. Pray that there will be no turmoil,” said Syariefuddin, who
is also the cooperatives and small and medium enterprises minister.
Those who take Syariefuddin and his statement lightly will be
disappointed. Just before the shock of Anas being implicated and his
subsequent exit from the party’s top post, Syariefuddin and fellow party
patrons put pressure on Anas to step down, citing the party’s nose-diving
popularity.
Other party executives like Johnny Allen Marbun and Max Sopacua, but not
those linked to Anas, joined the chorus of support for the mechanism to
elect a new chairman. The party’s leader at the House of Representatives,
Nurhayati Ali Assegaf, went further by tipping First Lady Ani Yudhoyono
as the sole candidate.
“Consensus is not necessarily undemocratic. If 80 percent of voters
support a particular candidate, a decision is already reached. Voting
would be a waste of time in that case,” Nurhayati said.
Such an attitude is reminiscent of Indonesia’s Pancasila-based democracy
practiced under President Soeharto, who until the final year of his
reign, maintained his distaste of the “50 percent plus one” type of
democracy adopted in the West, putting his trust instead in the consensus
process as the true embodiment of democracy.
Soeharto was the first to coin the term “rounded democracy” as an ideal
national policy-making process typified by consensus, as opposed to “oval
democracy”, which refers to decision-making through voting. It came ahead
of the General Session of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) to
elect a vice president in 1988, when the Muslim-based United Development
Party (PPP) insisted on contesting the post by nominating its chairman,
Jaelani Naro, despite Soeharto’s clear preference for his minister/state
secretary Soedharmono.
Soeharto said he wanted a vice president who was unanimously elected by
the MPR, hence all the people, because the second man in command would
have to be ready to replace him at any time.
To everybody’s delight, Naro dropped his bid at the last minute, saving
the day for rounded democracy.
When addressing 500 elected House members at the State Palace on Aug. 9,
1997, Soeharto reiterated the need to preserve rounded democracy for the
sake of political stability. Liberal democracy, he said, only resulted in
instability as evident in the frequent changes of government, which would
give the nation no chance to begin development.
Debate was not prohibited under Pancasila democracy, but it had to lead
to a consensus, according to Soeharto. None of the elected House members,
some of them perhaps still serving today albeit under different party
banners, dared to challenge Soeharto’s teaching, which is today perceived
as a defiance of democracy.
Challenges to rounded democracy did claim their victims. The Armed Forces
chief of sociopolitical affairs, Lt. Gen. Harsudiono Hartas, lost his
post and career for campaigning for Armed Forces commander Gen. Try
Sutrisno as the vice-presidential candidate in 1993, while Soeharto had
opted for his technology and research minister, BJ Habibie. Try won
Soeharto’s endorsement anyway, but the reelected president only entrusted
him with low-key supervisory jobs.
During his five-year term, Try went overseas only once — to Australia.
When Soeharto could not attend the ASEAN informal meeting in 1997 due to
ill health, he assigned foreign minister Ali Alatas to represent Indonesia.
Democratic Party elites may have learned from democracy à la Soeharto,
which emphasizes unity and minimizes, if not curtails, differences.
Yudhoyono who, like Soeharto, was an Army general, is no exception.
The party is enduring its worst crisis ever with only one year left until
the 2014 legislative election; some have described it as a sinking ship,
with one executive after another being convicted or implicated in
corruption cases. Various surveys have forecast its falling behind the
Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), two
parties that grew up under Soeharto’s New Order regime.
Yudhoyono and his loyalists may push for a consensus to support a sole
candidate to avoid internal splits, which would jeopardize the party’s
consolidation agenda. More importantly, allowing a contender to join the
race will only give Anas room to maneuver and spoil the agenda.
Anas has traumatized Yudhoyono. Despite his apparent preference for Andi
Mallarangeng for the party chief’s post in 2010 Yudhoyono, as a champion
of democracy, had no choice but to allow Anas to contest the election —
which he then won.
Many believe, however, that despite his isolation, Anas’ influence on the
party’s grass roots should not be underestimated. His bargaining power
appears to remain intact, given the fact that the Corruption Eradication
Commission (KPK) has yet to arrest him.
History teaches us the clear lesson that consensus is prone to abuses of
power to nullify differences and suppress opposition; oftentimes under
the guise of “national” or “greater” interests. In the past, consensus
led to a fake democracy.
The upcoming extraordinary congress is a real test for the Democrats to
prove their commitment to democracy, which may be costly. Many will be
unhappy with the results of democracy, which will never please everybody
all of the time.
My feeling, however, is that the Democrats will propose and unanimously
elect a sole candidate handpicked by Yudhoyono. I hope, I will be proved
wrong. ●
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