Cadre Grooming a Task for Political Parties

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

Representatives of political parties participating in the 2024 Election are ready to receive serial number placards obtained in the Lottery and Determination of Political Party Numbers Participating in the 2024 General Election in the courtyard of the General Election Commission (KPU) Office, Jakarta, Wednesday (14/12/2022).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The inclination for political parties to turn to potential figures other than their own cadres for presidential or vice-presidential candidacy shows that the parties in Indonesia have yet to optimize cadre recruitment and leadership development. A political party should ideally strengthen its internal regeneration program to prepare qualified candidates for national leadership in the hope of meeting people’s aspirations. That is what a political party as a political institution should pursue.

Political parties promoting others’ cadres in presidential elections has been a common practice, as shown in the buildup to the 2024 election. Among those political parties is the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI). It has announced its support for Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, who is also a cadre of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), to run for the 2024 election as presidential candidate.

The National Mandate Party (PAN) has recommended several figures for presidential nomination. None of them are the party’s cadres. They are PDI-P central board chair Puan Maharani, Golkar Party chairman Airlangga Hartarto and Ganjar. The Central Java governor is also included in the United Development Party’s (PPP) want list along with Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga (Gerindra Party). It says they are potential presidential candidates preferred by the party’s grassroots.

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National Research and Innovation Agency’s (BRIN) political researcher Aisah Putri Budiatri pointed to the phenomenon as a discouraging development of political institutions and an indication of internal problems over the performance in cadre recruitment and regeneration. “Parties have difficulty producing potential candidates from within their cadres. This is certainly a daunting task for all parties in Indonesia at the moment," Aisah said when contacted from Jakarta on Wednesday evening (11/1/2023).

She associated the desperate struggle to yield well-groomed cadres with low loyalty, which resulted in a party’s politician being prone to change allegiance to another party. She attributed such a condition partly to the consequence of the adopted electoral system, in which people can directly choose House of Representatives members and president. Regarding the presidential nomination, she said political parties would tend to let themselves drift in the prevailing trend. They will go for candidates who appear to be popular among the public with high potential for victory even though the candidates are not their cadres.

To deal with the political quandary, she said political parties must be committed to their function, which is to recruit and groom cadres for potential leaders with well-developed capacity, competence and track record in the eyes of the public.

PSI’s apology

MARINA EKATARI

The Indonesian Solidarity Party (left) is nominating Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo (right) as Indonesia's presidential candidate in the 2024 elections.

The political parties’ tendency to go outside for figures when it comes to presidential nomination has drawn mockery from PDI-P chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri. In her speech to mark the party's 50th anniversary on Tuesday, she said there was a tendency for other political parties to take a ride on the vehicle of PDI-P cadres’ success. She signaled that other parties were looking to capitalize on PDI-P’s hard work on cadre-ization. “They take my cadres [for nomination] without asking for permission. How dare they," she said.

Seemingly feeling censured by her statement, PSI, which has declared Ganjar as a presidential candidate, apologized to Megawati. "We understand what Megawati said in her speech at the PDI-P's 50th anniversary was addressed to PSI. On this occasion, with all humility, PSI apologizes to Ibu Mega," PSI Board of Advisory deputy chairperson Grace Natalie said via PSI's Instagram account on Wednesday.

She said PSI's decision to support Ganjar had been taken based on grassroots preferences and that the majority of PSI cadres and supporters wanted Ganjar as a candidate for next president.

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PAN also said support for Ganjar and Puan for presidential candidates had come up as regional favorites. Deputy chairperson Viva Yoga Mauladi said the party had no problem including other political parties’ cadres’ names in the list of potential candidates as representative of people’s preferences.

PPP deputy chairperson Arsul Sani said a party should not object to its cadre being pitched by others, also citing it as the wish of the people. He said his party’s mention of candidacy was not a definite nomination yet.

PDI-P board member Bambang Wuryanto pointed out the need for every party to have authority and sovereignty over presidential nomination. He said political parties should maintain relations and ethics. "Today, [addressing] ethics is important. When everyone thinks pragmatically, ethics, because it's not written law, is often ignored. [The ethics of asking for permission] is ignored. In fact, [ethics] is the nation's true value. Regarding PSI, they should have asked for permission when they were about to declare [the nomination]. They should have done so, shouldn’t they," Bambang said.

This article was translated by Musthofid.