| |
 |
| |
^ The Workshop in session |
|
|
| |
^ CDI Director Dr Stephen Sherlock at the Workshop |
| |
 |
| |
^ Workshop group photo. |
CDI Director Joins Intensive Workshop on Political Parties in Indonesia
CDI Director, Dr Stephen Sherlock, was a presenter at a workshop in Singapore bringing together many of the world’s leading researchers on Indonesian political parties in July 2010. The workshop, entitled “Dynamics of Parties and Party System in Post-Reformasi Indonesia”, was convened by the Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Singapore’s Nanyang University.
Dr Sherlock’s paper, entitled “Parties, Parliament and Policy-making”, introduced a discussion of issues about the activities of political parties in the Indonesian parliament. He argued that while a lot of attention has been given to the behaviour of parties during election campaigns and in the post-election formation of government, there has been less serious study of how they operate in the legislature. In particular, there is a need to examine the dynamic of the relationship between party organisations and the party caucuses in parliament. The dearth of policy development amongst the parties means that there is little consistency in the policy positions argued by the parties’ representatives in parliament. The work of parliament in drafting good quality legislation and enforcing accountability over executive government is weakened as a result.
Other papers were presented by scholars from the Australian National University, other Australian universities, and universities from the Asian region and other parts of the world. A notable feature was presentations by leading figures from a number of Indonesian parties. Sessions included papers on each of the major parties, changes in the nature of the party “system”, patterns in party campaigning, the growing importance of the arena of politics at the regional level and international assistance to political parties. The objective of the workshop, apart from an intensive exchange of views amongst specialists in the field, was to produce papers for an upcoming special edition of the RSIS journal focusing on Indonesian political parties.
