W

hat do Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama and US Republican Party presidential primaries frontrunner Donald J. Trump have in common?

They are both the embodiment of a recent democratic phenomenon — antiestablishment politics. Both Ahok’s and Trump’s popularity present clear challenges that could shake the current political system to the core.

First, though, what Ahok and Trump do not have in common, is how they “utilize” political parties in garnering electorate support. Ahok is running as an independent, while Trump is seeking Republican Party endorsement. While Trump calls himself a Republican, his credentials have been questioned, and the 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney went so far as to call him a “fraud”.

One similarity stands out: both Ahok and Trump are gaining support by tapping into the general resentment for “the establishment”. The establishment refers to the oligarchs; those politicians, figures or systems that are part of the existing power structures or aligned with party bosses.

Political scientist Jeffrey Winters points out that, in Ahok’s Indonesia, despite open elections and the separation of power, politics and political parties are still highly influenced by “oligarchs”: political players and big businesses, including those that were “groomed” by the Soeharto era.
___________________________________

Political parties are still the building blocks of our democracies in the long term.

The multiparty system has not resulted in the prosperity that was promised. These oligarchs are perceived as being responsible for corruption, creating disillusionment among the public about democracy. Joko Widodo’s victory in 2014 election was believed to have been more a result of his profile as an outsider than his Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) credentials.

Meanwhile, antiestablishment politics in the US context manifest in a slightly different form, but show the same general distrust toward political parties and government. This was evident after the 2008 Global Economic Crisis and the political division between Republicans and Democrats.

Trump is tapping into the section of Republican voters who are angry that their party refuses to address immigration reform, healthcare reform and many other issues. Trump is tapping into their anger and disappointment and leveraging any and all antiestablishment sentiment and using it as a form of political currency.

Both Ahok and Trump’s antiestablishment message has resulted in opposition from the establishment: In Indonesia, many political parties have accused Ahok of deparpolisasi (sidelining political parties). Many have pushed for changes in administration requirements to make it more difficult for independents to contest elections. More disturbingly, some have raised the issue of Ahok’s ethnicity and faith, which are perceived as being incompatible with his predominantly Muslim electorate. For Trump, many party leaders, including those in the Republican National Committee, are trying to directly block his nomination.

Antiestablishment sentiment, which forces the public to look for alternatives, signals a profoundly broken political system. In fact, antiestablishment politics are rising in many other democracies, including some European countries.

In Europe, antiestablishment forces are challenging the “established” political parties and focusing on three “I”s: Inequality, Immigration and Identity. For example, widespread unemployment and rising inequality have given rise to left-wing parties in Spain and Greece while immigration issues have increased support for nationalist parties such as UKIP in the UK and Marine Le Pen’s Nationalist Front in France.

Antiestablishment sentiment calls for serious reform in political parties. In Indonesia, political parties need to be more responsive to public issues and develop a more open and merit-based member advancement system in order to produce capable candidates for public office. In the US, it calls for political parties, in Trump’s case the Republican Party, to reform. The Republicans need to stand up to the more extreme right-wing faction of the electorate and denounce all xenophobic and extreme views, which have been tapped into repeatedly by Trump.

There is a lesson for us voters to learn from the phenomenon of antiestablishment candidates or parties. When we, as voters, are angry about the political elites’ inability to produce the results we expect them to deliver, it is very convenient for us to turn to any politician or candidate who voices sentiment that addresses our discontent.

In doing so, however, voters are tested on their rationality because the policies behind the angry sentiment of antiestablishment candidates, more often than not, are simply impractical, such as Trump’s idea to build a giant wall along the US-Mexico border and ordering Mexico to pay for it. In the case of Ahok, voters need to understand that political parties are still the building blocks of our democracies in the long term, and that supporting Ahok does not mean that they oppose anything that political parties are doing.
________________________________

The writer is vice president of the Indonesia Alumni Chapter at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), NUS, Singapore.