Party Official and Political Cartel

Elections are no longer a manifestation of respect for the people's voice, but a period that opens the widest possible bazaar of compromise, rearranging the position of each political force.

The discourse about the dominative relationship of a political party with its members, who are also officials and candidates for public office, requires serious discussion to find common ground for an ideal relationship between the two.

Discussing this has never been more crucial than now, when Indonesia is entering a critical phase ahead of the registration of presumptive candidates for the 2024 presidential election. Tensions resulting from a political party's violent intervention in elected candidates should be resolved without having to wait for repeated mistakes like continually fluctuating relationships, such as President Joko Widodo's experience with his party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). In both cases, the public witnessed the party’s superiority of over the President, a demonstration of an unequal a relationship and, at the same time, an odd one within the parameters of the values of a democratic state.