Indonesian National Party
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The Indonesian National Party (Partai Nasional Indonesia/PNI) is the oldest political party in Indonesia, established on July 4, 1927, when Sukarno, a young engineer at the time, started to form a movement with that name. The Dutch tried to suppress the movement and its leader was imprisoned numerous times intentions; thus, the party really began its organisational work in 1945 (Gosnell, 1958: 182). The party had many key governmental posts from 1945 on, and although Sukarno as the president of the new state of Indonesia nominally kept aloof from party activities, he supported the PNI. The PNI won the first Indonesian General Election in 1955. The party programme embraced above all nationalism; it also favoured a strong centralized government and secularism (ibid.). The first Indonesian General Election was participated by more than 30 political parties. Together with PNI, Masyumi, Nahdatul Ulama (NU), and Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) were largest political parties in 1955.
The big name of PNI was shading together with the fall of Sukarno, first President of the Republic of Indonesia in 1966. The Golkar, political party established by General Suharto dominated the Indonesian politics until the fall of Suharto's regime in 1998. In the 1999 General Election, called by President B.J. Habibie, PNI did not manage to secure any single seats in national parliament.
After the eleventh National Congress of PNI in Jakarta on July 6, 2000, Sukmawati Sukarnoputri, one of Sukarno's daughters committed to reinstate the big name of PNI in Indonesian politics by participating in 2004 General Election with the new name PNI Marhaenisme. PNI Marhenisme held its first National Congress on 27-28 September 2003.
In 2004 General Election, PNI Marhaenisme managed to gain 0.81% votes, giving the party one seat in national parliament. The Indonesian parliament (DPR) formed after 2004 General Election was dominated by Golkar with 128 seats, followed by PDIP (1999 GE winner led by Megawati Sukarnoputri) with 109 seats.
[edit] References and notes
- Indonesians Go to the Polls: The Parties and their Stand on Constitutional Issues, by Harold F. Gosnell in Midwest Journal of Political Science, 1958
