REFORM (known in post-Suharto Indonesia as reformasi) has gone on for five years. Political parties, the supposed pillars of democracy, have morphed into mere instruments of power and politics. Nary a change from the New Order.

A solid mass basis is a mere illusion. The constituency is nothing more than floating masses so fluid it can easily go any which way during election. Political parties do not grow out of a unity of ideas, but of p