REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- A political observer said the solidity of the coming government would be determined by the quality of coalition to be formed by the ruling party.
Ridho Imawan Hanafi from survey firm Sugeng Sarjadi Syndicate said here on Sunday quality instead of the size of coalition would determine the effectiveness of government.
The country has carried out legislative elections with opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) leading but not enough to contest the presidential election in July.
PDIP which won 19.2 percent of the votes needs to coalesce with other smaller parties in order to contest the presidency.
PDIP, which failed to garner an overwhelming majority of the votes in the legislative elections last week has named Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo as its presidential candidate.
A minimum of 20 percent of the popular votes or 25 percent of the parliamentary seats are needed to contest the presidential election.
Joko Widodo or Jokowi as he is popularly known, has held talks with a number leaders of other of parties on possibility of forming coalition.
An agreement has been reached with National Democrat (Nasdem) which said it would support Jokowi as the next president.
Ridho Imawan Hanafi said here on Sunday the number of parties joining a coalition would not determine the solidity of the next government.
"The quality of coalition would determine the solidity and stability of government," he said.
The past coalition government has often been weakened by internal disputes such as in the policy of cutting fuel subsidy, he cited.
"Over sized coalition would not guarantee stronger government. The coalition that resulted from the 1999 election should serve as a lesson," he said.
Jokowi has pledged he would not form a coalition on proportional share of cabinet ministries.
He has made it clear solid coalition is needed in the parliament to support the government, but position in the cabinet should not be bargained for support from coalition members.
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