I have been in Jakarta just over two weeks now, busy with university-related work. I have been able to talk to a range of contacts for exchanges of ideas. This has of been great help in thinking through issues relating to the book I am writing and other projects. (More on this in the next blog.)
Among those I have spoken too are contacts in the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD). (see Winning Democracy in Indonesia for historical background article on the PRD. For more background see ASAP resources on PRD and also PRD official websiste)
The PRD is very busy at the moment preparing to make the public announcement of a new electoral initiative it is launching together with some allies. This will be the formation of the Preparatory Committee for the National Liberation Unity Party (PAPPERNAS). See New left party formed
A PAPPERNAS congress is scheduled for late November or early December this year. At the moment, the PAPPERNAS forces are overwhelmingly from the PRD, but the party has decided that it is better to start the project now and build upwards and outwards. Partly this is a result of the nature of Indonesian electoral laws which set very high barriers for new parties to jump over on order to register. It will be a very, hard slog to set up the numbers of branches in the set number of provinces, sub-provinces and districts set by the laws. They will need the maximum amount of time to do the work if they are to succeed.
The other political consideration is the nature of the extreme fragmentation that is a characteristic of social protest and its political manifestations (see Disorganising Mass Politics). Alliances and united fronts cannot be successfully negotiated at the national level alone, or at all. There are probably thousands, even tens of thousands, of activist groups, ad hoc and semi-permanent, scattered around the country. Most have no contact with each other, at the most conglomerating in small clusters here and there. Where there is a national network of some kind, it is very loose and the national centre usually has little, if any, authority. It is impossible to negotiate an alliance with these thousands of groups scattered around hundreds of towns. It looks like PAPPERNAS will be able to start with branches on most of the major islands in the country, including Java, Bali, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Timor.
The public announcement will take place in a week or so. PAPPERNAS is not the only new party project being talked about. Several of the (soft) left NGOs, including some with substantial resources, are also moving to establish a party that can participate in the 2009 elections. Megawati’s party, the PDIP, is also succeeding in attracting more and more movement activists, as some give up on the idea that any independent initiative can succeed. Of course, this approach also means giving up the more radical vision of change that they originally adhered to.