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Despite Indonesia’s largely successful transition to democracy, political parties, including at the provincial level, have overlooked constituent groups and thus tend to ignore important information about public opinion and needs.  Furthermore, there remains little coordination between parties and their legislative factions with regard to constituent outreach and public policy developments.  This was reflected in the 2009 elections in which the legislative elections resulted in 70 percent turnover of provincial representatives across the country.

Download Summary (PDF)
Despite Indonesia’s largely successful transition to democracy, political parties, including at the provincial level, have overlooked constituent groups and thus tend to ignore important information about public opinion and needs.  Furthermore, there remains little coordination between parties and their legislative factions with regard to constituent outreach and public policy developments.  This was reflected in the 2009 elections in which the legislative elections resulted in 70 percent turnover of provincial representatives across the country.

The lead up to the 2014 elections will be a critical time for political parties to strengthen internal party structures and further consolidate their base of support through effective issue-based platforms.  To do this, political parties need to cultivate their next generation of leaders as well as broadening their base of support to new constituencies, engaging new actors in the political process.  This new dynamic sets the stage for traditionally overlooked groups, such as women and youth, to assert themselves as key activists and leaders within their political parties and communities. 

Democratic Governance Initiatives

IRI is currently targeting efforts in three provinces in Indonesia: Aceh, South Sulawesi and most recently, East Nusa Tenggara.  In each province, IRI seeks to employ five distinct initiatives to improve the representative capacity, transparency and effectiveness of legislators and political parties.  First, IRI is conducting a series of trainings and consultations with political parties and legislators, emphasising constituent outreach.  Second, IRI works with political parties and their legislators to identify shared issues of concern in order to craft outreach initiatives.  Third, IRI assists political parties and their legislators with the organization and execution of constituent outreach initiatives.  Fourth, IRI is working with an issue-based public/private task force, which is informed by public opinion polling, to bring policy, political and legislative leaders together to jointly develop policy initiatives.  Finally, IRI trains political party members to conduct legislative research and provides them with a forum to develop issue-based coalitions and messages.

Youth and Women’s Participation

In IRI’s target provinces, the Institute also focuses on supporting young people and women leaders from within existing political party wings.  IRI’s support enables youth and women to develop leadership advocacy skills as a means of more effectively engaging them in the political process.  IRI works to: 1) enhance the leadership capacity of women and youth cadres of all political parties; 2) increase the capacity of women and youth political party wings to increase party outreach to women and youth and thus better engage them in participatory democracy; and 3) encourage women and youth political wings to advocate on behalf of community issues within their parties and legislative factions.  In implementing its work, IRI uses its global experience of identifying and cultivating future leaders.

Political Participation in Aceh

IRI is also supporting political parties to participate in Aceh’s 2011 pilkada elections (currently scheduled for November 14, 2011).  IRI is supporting a provincial public opinion poll to identify issues of concern and assist parties in developing election programs which respond to those concerns.  IRI is also conducting a series of campaign training seminars to train candidates and party activists to conduct issue-oriented, grassroots campaigns.  Participants represent all political parties competing in Aceh’s direct elections.  The seminars prepare trainers to replicate the training program for their party’s activists throughout the province. 

Constituent Outreach

IRI is working with district-level legislators in Maluku, Bali and Yogyakarta to identify innovative and creative outreach efforts and to improve their outreach skills through targeted training and focus group research.  Also, IRI will be organizing a national conference in Jakarta to showcase their experience and success stories with provincial and national legislatures and their political party leadership boards, sharing best practices. 

Past Successes

IRI’s 10 years of experience in Indonesia positioned it to work effectively leading up to the 2009 legislative elections.  The Institute’s prior history enabled us to work closely with Indonesia’s political parties and elected leaders to build the skills and internal structures needed to address the challenges inherent in democratic transition and governmental decentralization.  

With support from the U.S. Department of State, in 2006 IRI launched a two-year women’s political initiative program, working with women’s wings of provincial political parties to provide women party activists and potential candidates with training to strengthen their skills and to create networks of politically-active women. 

From 2005-2007, IRI successfully conducted an innovative E-Governance program to increase the accountability, transparency and constructive engagement of provincial-level elected officials by their constituents in Yogyakarta, East Java and South Sulawesi.  In a political environment where there was little legislator-constituent interaction, these programs helped begin to improve communication between constituents and legislators.