KEHIDUPAN POLITIK DAN DEMOKRASI DI AFRIKA

• KONDISI POLITIK DAN DEMOKRASI DI AFRIKA

• FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI KEHIDUPAN POLITIK DAN DEMOKRASI DI AFRIKA

• PARTAI POLITIK DI AFRIKA

KONDISI POLITIK DAN DEMOKRASI DI AFRIKA

• Secara umum masih menunjukkan “kegamangan politik” ala negara berkembang (pergolakan politik internal, perebutan kekuasaan, lemahnya elemen-elemen demokrasi, dll)

• Ada tren perkembangan demokrasi sebagai lanjutan the third wave of democratization ke arah yang lebih baik (peningkatan partisipiasi politik dengan dasar kesadaran politik WALAU masih rendahnya pendidikan politik)

• Masih menguatnya faktor-faktor tradisional dalam perpolitikan (ethnicity, region and religion)

• 1960-1970-1980 an: ditandai dengan coup d’etat, assassination dan kekerasan politik lainnya

• 1990 an: institusionalized means namun yang menang yang incumbent terus; pergantian kekuasaan karena natural death, voluntary resignation dan losing an election; disini ada kecenderungan masa pemerintahan diperpanjang (third term) dengan berbagai cara: merubah konstutusi/amandement, martial law dan referendum nasional.

• 2000-2005 irregular means dropped to just 19% (coup d’etat, assassination and political violence)

POLITIK DAN DEMOKRASI DI AFRIKA

• Kehidupan Politik di Afrika dipenagruhi oleh beberapa faktor:

a. Colonialism (mental/karakter, sistem, dan tradisi)

b. Internal Factors: Region, Ethnicity, and Religion

c. International Ideology (Liberalism and communism)

Colonialism

• Politik di Afrika secara umum dianalogikan dengan western experience

• Karakter dan patologi dari kondisi geopolitik di Afrika salah satu disumbangkan oleh kolonialisme

• Perspektif Integral state= “negara/kekuasaan” sebagai arena utama politik dimana pemegang kekuasaan mensubordinate dan mendomesticate seluruh ruang publik dan mengontrol seluruh sendi kehidupan (politik, ekonomi dan kemasyarakat) telah diperkenalkan sejak kolonialisme

Internal Factors

• Peran patronase-klien

• Ethnicity

• Region

• religion

Perspektif Internasional

• Pengaruh ideologi luar seperti komunisme dan liberalisme

• Hal ini berkolerasi terhadap bantuan luar negeri

PARTAI POLITIK DI AFRIKA

• Afrika post-independence lebih banyak memberikan perhatian kepada persoalan politik dan kultus individu (personal) daripada pembangunan ekonomi-sosial

• Kalau pun ada perhatian terhadap ekonomi lebih dipicu oleh keinginan pemimpin yang mengejar/membuat program/kebijakan jangka pendek yang bersifat destruktif.

• Staying in power and building an economic base for themselves

• power-=wealth for themselves and for paying patron-client

• Partai politk bukan produk dari kelompok yang memperjuangkan kepentingan sosial tetapi bersumber dari individu yang memiliki kepentingan utama untuk akses power.

• Partai politik lebih berusia muda di Afrika terutama dalam mendesign pelaksnaan pemilu karena kurangnya pengalaman dalam program drafting (karena fokus kepada kekuasaan).

• Menurut Erdman:

1. Barely distinguishable and essentially meaningless programs

2. Weak bureaucratic organization, including unreliable membership data and poor funding base

3. The dominance of informal relation such as patronage and clientelism as well as strong personalism

4. Lack of internal democracy

5. High degree of factionalism

6. Weak formal links to civil society

7. Predominantly regional or ethnic based membership and electorate

SISTEM PARTAI POLITIK DI AFRIKA

• Single Party System: Historically, African one-party systems are associated with the late 1960s until the early 1990s when at least four-fifths of the continent was ruled by authoritarian regimes (one-party states, military regimes, military socialist regimes and civil dictatorships).

• Some countries became de jure single-party states,2 that is, they changed their constitutions so that only one political party was allowed in the country.

• Examples of de jure one-party states were Ethiopia with the Ethiopian Workers Party (WPE), Angola with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (Movimento Popular de Liberaço de Angola, MPLA), Mozambique with the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique, Frelimo), and Sudan with the Sudanese Socialist Union (SSU),

• Other African countries became de facto single-party states. In these countries the constitution was not changed to mandate one party, but in reality the ruling parties in these countries gained and kept a monopoly on power, dominating all branches of government.

• According to Heywood, one-party systems were associated with anti- colonial nationalism and state consolidation in the developing world.

• In Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, for example, the ‘ruling’ party developed out of an independence movement that proclaimed the overriding need for nation-building and economic development.

• In Zimbabwe, one-party rule emerged between 1987 and 1989 (seven years after independence) when the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) forced the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) into a merger through violence and intimidation

System Partai Politik di Afrika

• Two-Party System: A two-party system is duopolistic in that two ‘major’ parties that have a roughly equal prospect of winning government power dominate it. In its classical form, a two-party system can be identified by three criteria.

• 1. Although a number of ‘minor’ parties may exist, only two parties enjoy sufficient electoral and legislative strength to have a realistic prospect of winning government power.

• 2. The larger party is able to rule alone (usually on the basis of a legislative majority); the other provides the opposition.

• 3. Power alternates between these parties; both are ‘electable’, the opposition serving as a ‘government in the wings’.

• Dominant Party System:

• In most of the literature, dominant-party systems should not be confused with one-party systems, although they may at times exhibit similar characteristics.

• A dominant-party system is competitive in the sense that a number of parties compete for power in regular and popular elections, but is dominated by a single major party that consequently enjoys prolonged periods in power.

• In Africa, there are dominant- party systems in 16 countries

• Multy-party System

• A multiparty system is characterized by competition between more than two parties, thus reducing the chances of single-party government and increasing the likelihood of coalitions

INTERNAL PARTY FINANCE

• African political parties raise money in order to maintain themselves as organizations, recruit personnel, win support, hold conventions, manage election campaigns, handle the media, establish political offices to canvass support and get their message through to the electorates. The main sources of political party funding in Africa are:

• donations;

• public funding;

• minimal membership fees;

• public funding/subsidies;

• trust funds; and

• corrupt kickbacks from businessmen and women.

Basis Partai Politik

• Elite-based party: Elite parties form as groupings of elite members particularly in situations where an individual politician's political standing can be secured without the support of large populations.

• An elite party can form internally in the parliament and its political power is derived from that of its individual members. Elite parties have practically no extra-parliamentary structure and a generally more flexible than mass parties.

• The central role of independent, powerful individuals implies that their structure is often loose and that their policy may be internally disputed due to disagreements between individual members.

Basis Partai Politik

• Mass-based party: unite hundreds of thousands of followers, sometimes millions. But the number of members is not the only criterion of a mass-based party.

• The essential factor is that such a party attempts to base itself on an appeal to the masses. It attempts to organize not only those who are influential or well known or those who represent special interest groups but rather any citizen who is willing to join the party

Basis Partai Politik

• Ethnicity-based party

• Electoralist party: ‘Electoralist’ forms of political parties – also referred to as ‘catch-all,’ ‘electoral-professional,’ and ‘cadre’ by various sources – best serve legitimacy in a competitive, liberal democracy.

• Movement party

Umumnya di Afrika adalah ethnicity-based party

• The Afro-Asiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout the Horn of Africa , North Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia.

• The Nilo-Saharan language family consists of more than a hundred languages spoken by 30 million people. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by Nilotic tribes in Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, and northern Tanzania.

• The Niger–Congo language family covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa and is probably the largest language family in the world in terms of different languages.

• The Khoi-san languages number about fifty and are spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 120,000 people.

Agama di Afrika

• 45% of the population are Christians,

• 40% are Muslims

• and less than 15% continue to follow traditional African religions.

• A small number of Africans are Hindu, Baha'i, or have beliefs from the Judaic tradition.

• Examples of African Jews are the Beta Israel, Lemba peoples and the Abayudaya of Eastern Uganda.

• There is also a small minority of Africans who are non-religious.

• Dolo categorized opposition forces in Liberia into five groups:

• the first category is composed of academics who at the beginning committed themselves to democratic values. Through time, however, they were emasculated by the dictators and were discarded. Some of them started serving the undemocratic dictators, and others joined the insurgents to overthrow the dictatorial government in non-democratic means.

• The second category involves individuals who once were officials of the various Liberian dictatorial governments, but due to various reasons were either expelled or resigned and decided to join the opposition.

• The third group is composed of individuals whose personal and business interests are threatened by the existing governments and thus decided to join the opposition.

• The fourth category includes students and peasants who wanted social change in the country.

• The fifth group is composed of individuals who try to take revenge against certain ethnic groups due to ethnic hatred.

• “opposition political parties have proven to be just as undemocratic as the governments that they criticize.”

• According to Osei Hwedie, “the opposition has suffered enormously from the phenomena of factionalism and fragmentation”.

• In Africa, in the early years of the post colonial period, the newly-independent countries became one-party states. They banned opposition parties and blamed multi-party system for undermining national unity.

• This kind of situation prevailed in Africa in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Most of the parties that took political power after independence were liberation parties, which claimed that they represented the will of the people.

THE POLITICAL PARTIES IN AFRICA

1. FRAGMENTATION

• As Mathisen and Svasand noted, opposition parties

• in African democracies are highly fragmented. There are many African countries that have many small and weak political parties. This fragmented party system has reinforced the power of the incumbents.

• As noted by Howard and Roessler, and Lust-Okar the ruling parties deliberately employ a “divide-and rule” tactic to fragment and weaken the opposition parties. For Gentili, “The numbers of parties that appeared with the opening to democratization is not a demonstration of increased participation, but rather of fragmentation and therefore weakness of the party systems.”

CONTOH

• In 2001, Botswana had 12 political parties, and the dominant party was the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which ruled the country since 1966.

• By 2006, Ivory Coast had 130 parties, Senegal 77, and Liberia 200 political parties.

• Mali had more than 159 parties, and in Angola there were more than 138 political parties in 2008.

• Ethiopia had 64 parties in the 1995 election, and in the May 2000 election there were 65 political parties in the country

4 Tipe Fragmentation

• Rakner and Svasand divide political party fragmentation into four types:

• (a) Formal fragmentation: This takes place when a large number of parties are registered.

• (b) Competitive fragmentation: This kind of fragmentation emerges “when more parties are able to nominate candidates in a number of constituencies.”

• (c) Electoral fragmentation: This “occurs when votes are spread more evenly across a large number of parties.”

• (d) Parliamentary fragmentation: This appears “when parliamentary seats are more evenly distributed across a large number of parties.”

• For Lijphart ,Taagepera and Shugart the number of parties is determined by two important factors:

• the electoral system and the number of social cleavages (i.e. social heterogeneity) found in a society.

• The social heterogeneity could be the result of issue dimensions6, ethnic diversity and urbanizations. Social heterogeneity increases the number of political parties particularly when a country’s electoral system allows the representation of small parties.

• Though Ordeshook and Shvetsova, Cox andJones, argue that ethnic diversity increases the number of political parties

2. PERSONALISTIC PARTIES

• Many of the opposition parties in Africa are established around individual personalities. The works of Carroll and Carroll, Chabal and Daloz and Ake reinforce this finding.

• According to Ake, “The democratization of Africa has focused on the power elite, who are the natural enemies of democracy...their involvement in democracy movements is mainly a tactical maneuver. It is a response to internal contradictions and power struggles within a group for whom democracy is essentially a means to power

3. FAILURE TO PRODUCE ALTERNATIVE POLICY

• One of the chronic problems of the opposition parties in many African transitional democracies is their failure to forward distinct policy alternatives to the voters.

• As Mathisen and Svasand pointed out the obvious problem of African political parties is that they are weak in terms of developing a comprehensive political vision.

4. Lack of Long History and Experience

• Mathisen and Svasand, argue that in many African democracies most of the political parties are short-lived and do not have long history and experience.

• Therefore, the voters do not get a chance to evaluate opposition parties’ achievements over time

5. Lack of Mass base

• Many of the opposition parties in Africa lack proper contact with trade unions, labor unions, and peasants associations. Therefore, they are not mass-based.

• In countries where labor unions are autonomous they can play a very important role in opposition politics.

• In many African countries, the ruling parties took repressive measures against the labor unions to discourage them from playing a substantial political role. Therefore, in many African countries the opposition parties’ relation with the labor unions is very weak.

6. Limited Women Membership in Political parties

• As Kasse underscored, “a true democracy is characterized by the full and equal participation of women and men in the formulation and implementation of decisions in all spheres of public life”. Moreover, “No country can call itself democratic if half of the population is excluded from the decision-making process”

• Women and youth are widely underrepresented in many African opposition political parties. This is true not only to the opposition parties, but also to the incumbent parties

8. WEAK FINANCIAL POSITION

• One big disadvantage of the opposition parties in Africa is their weak financial position. As Johnston said, “Governing parties can tap into ‘administrative resources’— state powers and funds not available to the opposition—which are very useful in rewarding friends and punishing enemies.“

• For Tshitereke “money buys the access, goods and services, favors and skills that are essential to effective party activity.”

• According to Mathisen and Sväsand, there are various funding sources for African political parties, though the legitimacy of each type of funding is governed by each country’s rules and regulations.

• These funding sources are: membership fees, income from property or business owned by the party, taxes on representatives, publications, contributions from individuals, unions, organizations and corporations, and subsidies from a state or government (i.e. public funding).

8. ETHNICITY

• In Africa, political parties are seen as the “potential inheritors of the role previously played by ethnicity”.

• In some African countries, the opposition parties’ country-wide mobilizing capacity is curtailed due to ethnicity. This is particularly true for the non-ethnic opposition parties.

• As Hulterström argues there is a “very strong relationship between ethnic belonging and voter support”

ETNISITAS

• Etnisitas sangat penting dalam sistem politik di Afrika karena digunakan sebagai alat utama untuk MEMOBILISASI dukungan dari pemilih= ideologi partai

• Pada tataran ini pemilu “bukan untuk alat pemersatu kelompok etnik yang ada tetapi cenderung memperlebar pembagian etnik (POLARISASI) dan menggerus saling percaya diantara mereka.

• Pasca pemilu tidak akan menguntungkan/berkorelasi positif dalam memantapkan jaringan sosial yang menjadi salah satu prasyarat kondusifnya pembangunan ekonomi.

• Hal ini kemudian diyakini mengapa pembangunan ekonomi di Afrika tidak menunjukkan grafik yang signifikan

CONTOH ETNICITY

• In the Kenyan elections in the 1990s, both the incumbent KANU (Kenyan African National Union) and the opposition parties exploited ethnicity and mobilized their supporters along ethnic lines. According to LeBas, Moi’s government encouraged limited ethnic conflict to intimidate the opposition.

• In the 2005 election in Ethiopia, the non-ethnic opposition parties such as the CUD and the UEDF strongly opposed the use of ethnicity for political gain unlike the ruling party, the TPLF- EPRDF that mobilized its supporters by cleverly exploiting ethnicity. This tactic has immensely helped the ruling party to stay in power for the last two decades.

9. Boycotts ELECTION

• It is very common in Africa where opposition parties participate in elections that are not “free and fair”.

• On the other hand, there are many instances where the opposition parties boycott elections even if the elections are declared “free and fair” just to discredit the incumbents, and when they realize that their chance of winning is very low.

• Most of the time, the African opposition parties are the victims of legal and political restrictions crafted by the incumbent parties, which usually force them to boycott elections.

CONTOH BOYCOTTS

• In the past opposition parties in Africa had boycotted elections because of various factors:

• in Ghana (1992), due to the “illegitimacy of the electoral process”;

• in Mauritania (1997), due to “the government’s refusal to establish an independent commission”;

• in Sudan (2000), due to “the state of emergency” the government imposed”;

• in Ethiopia (1992,1995), due to the harassment of the opposition candidates, and so on.

• Most of the election boycotts in Africa are not effective due to the disunity of the opposition parties.

AFRICAN RENAISSANCE

• Between 1989 and 1992, the number of states in Africa where people were able to participate freely in the political process tripled, jumping from three to nine.

• The number of states considered at least “partly free” almost doubled, going from 15 to 26.

• The number of countries considered “not free” declined by half, dropping from 34 to 17. Key success stories during this period included Benin, Cape Verde, Malawi, Mali, São Tomé and Principe, and South Africa.

• This political rebirth occurred for several reasons.

• First, many Africans recognized that authoritarianism had generated neither economic growth nor political stability. They concluded it was time to go in a new direction.

• Second, after the collapse of Soviet communism, many authoritarian African governments that had relied on the Soviet Union and its allies for political and economic support lost their aid. These governments recognized that it was time for a change.

• Third, after communism’s collapse, the only source of economic assistance came from institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as well as Western governments. Aid and development money began to flow primarily to democratically elected governments.

PEMILU DI AFRIKA

• Sistem Pemilu sudah dilakukan sejak negara-negara Afrika merdeka (akhir 1950an-awal 1960an)

• Sistem Pemilu yanga da di Afrika:

a. Kecilnya the diffusion of power=kecilnya pembatasan kekuasaan (conventional wisdom in Africa: “the rules do not shape leaders’ behavior; leaders’ behavior trumps ruler”

b. Proses pemilu yang masih kurang professional: mulai dari registrasi pemilih-bahan-bahan logistik-pemantau independent-perhitungan suara-dsb

Kemenangan presiden dalam pemilu memberikan presiden yang baru kewenangan kekuasaan yang besar

PEMILU DI AFRIKA

• Pengelolaan pemilu yang tidak professional tersebut mengakibatkan:

1. institusi-institusi internal menjadi lemah

2. Wujudnya konflik-konflik internal dengan eskalasi kekerasan

3. Memperlambat/stagnan pertumbuhan ekonomi secara internal, negara tetangga dan kawasan

Bisa dibayangkan kalau separuh negara di Afrika dalam kondisi demikian (AFRIKA menjadi SURAM)

• Ada perkembangan yang menarik:

1. 1960 dan 1970 an rata-rata 28 pemilu/dekade

2. 1980 an rata-rata 36/dekalde

3. 1990 an rata-rata 65/dekade

4. 2005 saja telah ada 41 pemilu

5. 1990 ada sekitar 90% pemilu presiden dikonteskan

6. 2000-2005 ada sekitar 98% pemilu presiden dikonteskan

Kalau hal ini cenderung baik maka akan memantapkan fungsi dan peranan infrastruktur instutusional dan pada gilirannya akan menempa pertumbuhan ekonomi di Afrika

Harus ada reformasi yang secara terus menerus terhadap institusi sehingga ada pembatasan kekuasaan eksekutif

Kalau ada pembatasan kekuasaan akan membuat oposisi yang tidak menang akan salut terhadap pemimpin yang akuntabel

• Tahun 2011 ada sekitar 27 negara di Afrika mengadakan dan akan mengadakan pemilihan PRESIDEN, LEGISLATIF dan LOCAL.

• Pemilu merupakan sarana bagi masyarakat untuk mengekspresikan hak-hak politik mereka yang kemudian menjadi alat untuk mencapai kepentingan/pemenuhan kebutuhan hidup mereka.

• Pemilu di Afrika cenderung memperlemah institusi karena:

1. Kecurangan

2. Polarized ethnic group

3. Konflik kekerasan

4. Adanya kelompok lain yg mendominasi kelompok lain sehingga terjadi pengabaian terhadap kelompok minoritas terutama dalam pembangunan

Pemilu di Afrika ditemui secara meluas: PEMBELIAN SUARA, PENYUAPAN, DAN INTIMIDASI terhadap PEMILIH