Endy M. Bayuni , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 03/05/2010 9:56 AM | Headlines
President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono must feel a strong sense of betrayal after three parties in his coalition government turned their backs on him during Wednesday’s vote on the Bank Century bailout case, at the House of Representatives.
Golkar, the Prosperous and Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP) joined the opposition camp to reject the November 2008 bailout, paving the way for a legal case against Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati as main figures responsible for the controversial bailout decision.
The vote should have been plain sailing for Yudhoyono because on paper, since the six parties in his coalition control more than three-quarters of the House seats. Instead, he suffered a 325-212 defeat, supported only by his own Democratic Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the National Awakening Party (PKB).
The formidable coalition Yu-dhoyono had at the start of his second term in October turned out to be nothing but a house of cards. Earlier fears that this President had so much power vested in his hands — after he won the direct presidential election with more than 60 percent of the votes — turned out to be grossly unfounded.
Wednesday’s vote shows that, for better or for worse, Yudhoyono is not really in control of the nation’s destiny. Now, he may even have become a lame-duck president.
This is not so much a story of the failure of the coalition government as more the tragic story of ineptitude and incompetence on the part of the President, as well as the other players at playing the coalition political game.
In Indonesia’s multiparty system, where no single party has won an absolute majority in the House in the last three elections, it almost goes without saying that, in the name of political expediency, whoever wins the presidential election will have to form a coalition government. It is the wish of voters to see that power is shared rather than vested in the hands of one person.
Constitutionally, Yudhoyono did not have to parcel out Cabinet seats to other political parties when he formed his second-term government. But he did it anyway on the assumption that he would enjoy majority support in the House from the coalition partners, which he needs to secure his legislative agenda. For good measure, he made all six political parties sign a pact of loyalty as a condition to join his government.
After the betrayal by the Golkar Party, the PKS and the PPP, the President must surely be rethinking whether the presence of these parties in his government is beneficial.
The coalition partners shouldn’t be allowed to cut the cake and eat it, or else the President will be stuck with a coalition of opportunists who will quickly turn their backs whenever the opportunity presents itself, just as they did in the Bank Century inquiry.
But reconfiguring the political mix in government will not be sufficient. The President will also need to assert a stronger leadership in leading the coalition.
He does not need look far for an example of successful coalition management. His own first term in office between 2004 and 2009 was a success story of a coalition government, and at that time he was even leading from a weaker position than he holds today.
What is missing this time is the role of “parliamentary whip” that Jusuf Kalla played so effectively when he served as vice president in Yudhoyono’s first term. The government then survived several motions of parliamentary inquiry, but each time the coalition stood solidly behind it, and prevailed in all the votes. A few calls to the party leaders in the coalition were sufficient to ensure that their
representatives in the House fell into line.
Since power sharing is what voters want (as reflected in the election outcome), our elected politicians need to learn the art of coalition politics to ensure an effective government. Rather than turning it into a political game to serve their narrow political goals as they have done with Bank Century, politicians should turn this coalition arrangement into a positive force that can truly serve the interests of a diverse nation.
Can they live up to this expectation? Only time will tell.
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