From Aliran to Dealignment: Political Parties in Post-Suharto Indonesia

Abstract

Surprisingly, the outcome of the 1999 and 2004 elections in Indonesia and the resultant constellation of political parties are reminiscent of the first Indonesian parliamentary democracy of the 1950s. The dynamics of party politics is still marked by aliran (‘streams’): that is, some of the biggest political parties are still identified with specific milieux. But politik aliran lost a lot of its significance and re-emerged in a quite different form after the fall of Suharto in 1998. It is argued that parties are still socially rooted, so a modified aliran approach still has its analytical value. But one can witness a weakening of aliran (dealiranisasi) or dealignment of political parties. This dealignment is indicated by the rise of presidential or presidentialized parties, growing intra-party authoritarianism, the prevalence of ‘money politics’, the lack of meaningful political platforms, weak loyalties towards parties, cartelization and the upsurge of new local elites. The identification with certain parties has remained, but the ideological cement as well as the organizational base has been eroded. The reasons for this lie in reforms of formal institutions and social factors, ie shifts in the relationship between capital and the political class, altered educational patterns and the rising importance of mass media.