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Outsider NTT legislative candidates rejected
Yemris Fointuna , The Jakarta Post , Kupang | Fri, 10/10/2008 10:47 AM | The Archipelago
Hundreds of people grouped under the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Voters' Rights Movement staged a rally on Wednesday, rejecting the nominations of seven legislative candidates for the House of Representatives in next year's general election.
Group coordinator Yoseph Ahriyanto Ludoni said the movement had objected to these seven candidates because they had come from outside the province.
The seven candidates are Setyo Novanto of Vice President Jusuf Kalla's Golkar Party, Shinta Devanagari, Ellen Laurita, Rosi and Idayu Widya Hassari of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Samuel Purba and Jodi Hadiyanto of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democrat Party.
"It has been proven that people from outside the province who have been elected as members of the House have never struggled for the aspirations of the NTT people," Ludoni said.
He said there was no other reason for the rejection, saying the political parties had no respect for the people and quality of the province's cadres by nominating outsiders.
He urged the parties to choose candidates from within their NTT chapters to represent the province in the House of Representatives.
"Don't sacrifice the interests of the people for the sake of the interests of the parties' political elites."
Riding motorcycles, the protesters visited the three parties' local chapter offices in Kupang. However, no party representatives received them.
The supporters left the offices after giving speeches deploring the decision to nominate non-NTT residents as candidates for the House.
Separately, deputy chairman of PDI-P provincial chapter, Kristo Blasin, said the nominations of its four candidates had been conducted according to regulations.
"PDI-P has conducted a recruitment process for its legislative candidates according to the law and the party's constitution," Blasin said.
He said the nomination of the candidates was also in line with PDI-P as a nationalist and inclusive party which upheld diversity as a positive force.
NTT is a PDI-P stronghold. The recent gubernatorial election was won by a pair of candidates nominated by PDI-P.
Henry Manoe (not verified) — Fri, 10/10/2008 - 4:34pm
Nusa Tenggara Timur has for years been a step child in Indonesian politics. The result is that development of the Province has been stagnant more or less since independence. For many years it government departments were run by beaurocrats and techical people from Java. This did not help to develop local capacity to run its own affairs. Because the political parties only have looked after their own interests instead of that of the people they ought to represent, NTT has been on the short end of the development stick far too long. Poverty is rife with little prospects for meaningful employent for younger people (school and university educated youngsters) except to go into subsistance farming; an endless cycle of poverty. The health situation of its population is the lowest among all provinces in the country. People die of hunger every year because of malnutrition and deseases that can easily be prevented and/or cured. Basic services such as education, health, water, electricity are stuck in the dark ages and nobody in power seems to care and/or be able to start development on a upward path. If political parties nominate outsiders to represent the good people of NTT, this will not help the situation as they obviously have their own interest at heart. Responsible local representatives should do that job and political parties must put away their own interests above that of the people of NTT. People of NTT should be much more proactive and not wait for outside "help", which, in any case, most often is diverted to politicians and government officials' bank accounts. Of course corruption since Autonomy is rampant and politicians are to blame for not taken resolute action.
Henry Manoe
Kupang,NTT