Ignatius Mahendra Kusumawardhana is the international relations officer for Indonesia's Working People's Association (PRP).
In 2003, Mahendra was imprisoned for two years for "insulting the government" of then-president Megawati Sukarnoputri. In recent months, the PRP has initiated a number of joint statements from left groups across the Asia-Pacific region on common struggles.
Green Left Weekly's Peter Boyle spoke to Mahendra while he was in Australia to speak at Socialist Alternative's "Marxism 2010" conference held over April 2-5. A longer version of the interview can be found at Links, international journal of socialist renewal.
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The PRP plans to launch a new workers' party in Indonesia by 2012. Can you explain the likely politics of such a party and what steps the PRP are taking to prepare for it?
The PRP believes the main problem in Indonesia is the absence of working-class politics. This can only be solved by a party with the political ideology and program of the working class.
Establishing a political party of the working class has been the objective of the PRP since we began in 2004. Our 2009 congress set a target for launching such a party of 2012.
Our operation as a political association of working people since 2004 was a step in introducing and popularising the idea of forming a party among working-class activists.
We received a lot of positive responses and enthusiasm from the grassroots bases, which are fed up with the fact that there is no party that they can rely on.
The next step is to broaden our consolidation efforts to recruit more people who agree to build the working-class party.
Where does left unity fit in this plan for a new party?
We were the first left formation since the fall of Suharto to openly push for left unity. We have always kept in communication with as many left groups in Indonesia as possible, even though most of them don't view left unity as important and even try to avoid it with so many excuses.
We never gave up our belief that there should be left unity, especially in the struggle for a political party. But what we have learned is that left groups cannot be reduced only to activists trying to create a party in their own image.
We must exercise sensitivity towards the actual radicalisation in the grassroots. There are grassroots forces that are learning about the struggle and increasingly identify their political position with socialism and left politics.
There's a need to create as much as possible space for socialist propaganda. If this can be done, people can fight any backwardness and also fight off the immaturity and irrationalities that may have contributed to earlier left splits, and have made differences in the left seem more intense than they should be.
Open conferences and discussions among left groups can both popularise socialism and at the same time build left unity.
What place do you see for broader anti-neoliberal/anti-imperialist alliances in Indonesian politics today?
It is very important. We are developing a strategic, broad and multi-sectoral alliance called FOR Indonesia (Peoples Opposition Front of Indonesia — Front Oposisi Rakyat Indonesia). The platform of FOR Indonesia is anti-neoliberal/anti-imperialist, with the slogan: change the regime, change the system.
That slogan itself is an attempt to make the campaign against neoliberalism meet with popular sentiments. The growing dissatisfaction against corruption in the government is widespread among the common people.
People have started questioning the legitimacy of the regime of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), and they also don't trust most of the politicians.
The task of any broad anti-neoliberal alliance is to advance the people's consciousness about the current regime and the capitalist system.
FOR Indonesia tries to educate people with campaigns for real opposition to social injustices and prove that there are no political parties at present that are not entangled in the web of scandals and the oppression of the people.
By joining the current public issues, FOR Indonesia has the opportunity to bring together dispersed groups that fight the regime and the system, and promote a popular understanding.
The SBY government has been facing permanent protests since it was inaugurated for a second term last year and is in crisis. Do many Indonesians still see it as the most democratic option in the context of the existing parliamentary parties?
The SBY government is in crisis because of the corruption of every aspect of political life. Most Indonesians have no preference between the parliamentary parties. The evidence of this is a high abstention rate in elections.
But the crisis of the SBY government will only become a serious matter when extra-parliamentary struggle manages to accumulate greater strength from people's dissatisfaction through massive demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience.
Do you see electoral politics as an important arena of struggle for the left in Indonesia? What position did the PRP take in the last general election?
Electoral politics is important only if you fight against and compete seriously with the bourgeoisie electoral parties. When the left is weak, there's a big danger of demoralisation among your members and it will be harder to differentiate yourself from the opportunistic politicians.
Therefore boycott campaign in the last elections was necessary to protect our members from potential disintegration.
But after the result, we don't think that another electoral abstention will help the left groups in Indonesia. Progressives must try once again to build a broad and popular front that can give us the material base for its transformation into an electoral party.
With the time available before the next election, there is a great task ahead of every progressive movement in Indonesia for the consolidation of an alternative political party that can be used for electoral purposes.
In the popular mass struggle in Indonesia today, what are the most important sectors and mass organisations, and what is the relationship of the PRP to these mass organisations?
When we use the term "working people" we include three major elements: workers, peasants and fisherfolk. We have put as many cadre as we can in progressive organisations, especially in those three sectors.
The industrial workers are growing in militancy. We have a strong and close relationship with the biggest alternative trade union Confederation of Congress Alliance of Trade Unions of Indonesia (Kasbi). Most Kasbi leaders are also founders of the PRP.
We have witnessed a massive desire for a working-class party from trade union activists.
What is your opinion of the call for a new socialist international by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez?
We believe that a significant socialist international, as an institution with real political capacity to lead the working-class struggle globally, is always a necessity. In our present situation, maybe it is correct to look for directions and initiatives from Latin America where so many socialist experiments have been able to win the political battle domestically.
We understand very well the power and resources of this call by Chavez and so, in spirit and in principle, the PRP supports the call from Chavez.
However, for the realisation of a concrete unification in what might be the Fifth International there still needs to be a lot of preparation in our Asia-Pacific region.
What do you think are the challenges for the 21st century socialist movement and the lessons for the 20th century?
The most significant challenge is the need to build unity of the working-class struggle and at the same time be able to present a significant challenge to the hegemony and repression of the capitalists.
People need more inspiration like that which we've had from Latin America. Working people need to develop the counter-hegemony that was once represented in strong and popular institutions such as communist parties in the past.
What we must learn from the past is that the importance of developing a culture of democracy is something that cannot be compromised. The people of the former USSR and so many others have had to pay the consequences for the failure to continuously and dynamically develop socialist democracy.