TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Local leaders, not President, key to ending tyranny of majority
Second run: Former Surabaya mayor Tri Rismaharini (left) and her running mate Wisnu Sakti Buana raise their number for the local elections slated for Dec
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Second run: Former Surabaya mayor Tri Rismaharini (left) and her running mate Wisnu Sakti Buana raise their number for the local elections slated for Dec. 9, after their numbers were picked at the local elections office on Sept. 25. The incumbent is running for a second term against rival Rasiyo (right) and his running mate Lucy Kurniasari. Surabayaâs election was almost postponed as initially Risma was the sole candidate.(JP/Indra Harsaputra ) (left) and her running mate Wisnu Sakti Buana raise their number for the local elections slated for Dec. 9, after their numbers were picked at the local elections office on Sept. 25. The incumbent is running for a second term against rival Rasiyo (right) and his running mate Lucy Kurniasari. Surabayaâs election was almost postponed as initially Risma was the sole candidate.(JP/Indra Harsaputra )
S
span class="caption">Second run: Former Surabaya mayor Tri Rismaharini (left) and her running mate Wisnu Sakti Buana raise their number for the local elections slated for Dec. 9, after their numbers were picked at the local elections office on Sept. 25. The incumbent is running for a second term against rival Rasiyo (right) and his running mate Lucy Kurniasari. Surabaya's election was almost postponed as initially Risma was the sole candidate.(JP/Indra Harsaputra )
The popularity of several local leaders set the stage for election campaigning ahead of this year's local elections. Campaigns have been either fierce or, for those running against hugely popular incumbents, relatively low profile.
In Surabaya, the capital of East Java, threatened with the prospect of elections being postponed as only one ticket was running against incumbent Tri Rismaharini, a pair of obscure candidates headed to the local elections office ' and the running mate disappeared. He reportedly got a call from his mom, 'who didn't approve of his candidacy', reports said, to much amusement and disbelief.
In South Sulawesi, Bantaeng Regent Nurdin Abdullah may run for governor in 2018. He will likely face influential relatives of twice-elected Governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo, whose younger sister is being investigated for graft.
Though lacking a huge dynasty, leaders like Nurdin, a 52-year-old professor of agriculture from Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, have other sources of confidence ' their innovative approaches are gaining local and international attention. Nurdin, who was nominated for regent by several political parties, is the recipient of over 50 national and provincial, government and private awards including for autonomy, innovations in agriculture and animal husbandry, environmental management, marine resources development and improving local libraries and kindergartens. And he is not alone.
The emergence of leaders including Nurdin, former Surabaya mayor Ibu Risma, current Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama, former Surakarta mayor and now President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo, Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo and Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil makes one wonder what kind of leaders will emerge from across the nine provinces, 224 regencies and 36 municipalities set to hold simultaneous elections on Dec. 9.
As this went to press, the results were far from definitive. But the popularity of such leaders indicates how voters have been drawn to leaders seen to be trying their best to deliver public services to everyone.
One illustration is from Bojonegoro Regent Suyoto. As he ends his second term, Suyoto told a conference held by the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (Infid) in November about local clerics insisting that he build a mosque, to act as 'the road to heaven'.
'Spirituality is not my business,' he said. 'Public service is.' Building a road to the mosque was also a way to heaven, he had suggested. Infrastructure such as smooth roads and irrigation were his priority in the area he described as 'the poorest of the poor'. On his watch, poverty rates have plunged from 23 percent in 2008 to 14.75 percent last year.
In his second term, he finally agreed to build a grand mosque, he said, 'to showcase a new tourism icon' and to display a mosque with high standards including in its toilets. 'If I had built a mosque in my first term, I wouldn't have been able to convince people that I was not discriminating against anyone,' he explained.
He had to avoid seeming to favor Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second-largest Muslim organization, of which he is a member. Having mastered Arabic helped boost his Islamic credentials in the area dominated by the largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, he said. Eventually he was asked to officiate temples and churches, which had earlier had a hard time acquiring building permits.
He said the regency was riddled with communal disputes and conflicts, tracing all the way back to the Majapahit kingdom in the 13th to 16th centuries, and promising oil exploration. Establishing and preserving a trust fund supported by local oil reserves is one of the
regency's main assets, and another legacy of Suyoto.
The results of more elections in the coming years will indicate where Indonesia's democracy is heading, and whether new leaders' performances can help reduce the alarming trend of the tyranny of the majority across the country, an ugly hangover from authoritarian rule.
Exclusion, discrimination and intimidation of minorities, based on ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, etc., is seen often, including in over 300 bylaws, policies and regulations across provinces, mayoralties and regencies.
They are a legacy of previous governments, including the 10 years under former president Susilo Bambang Yudhyono, according to the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan). Yudhoyono's government left the policies as they were, despite protests from the public and rights bodies, saying that such policies were in the jurisdiction of regional administrations. The rights bodies and NGOs had claimed that many of the policies contravened the Constitution.
Yudhoyono even failed to ensure the upholding of a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin in Bogor, which remains unresolved today. Residents still hope for a solution from new Bogor Mayor Bima Arya, a young leader with a PhD in politics from Australia, but the city has been listed as the most intolerant in Indonesia, according to the NGO Setara in its recent tolerant cities index.
In October, Bima banned a Shiite Asyura ritual, mainly on security concerns, he said, 'because based on intelligence and the muspida [local consultative forum], action had to be taken because there were threats [to the safety of participants].' Religion itself, he said, was 'not the business of the mayor'.
More hope for progress, however, comes from Purwakarta Regent Dedi Mulyadi in West Java who stood out in the province long dubbed the most intolerant by rights bodies, along with its neighbor Banten, given its many discriminatory policies and church closures. In November, Dedi issued a circular guaranteeing the right to worship.
It merely affirmed constitutional rights, but it was a bold move in the wake of a local anti-Shiite movement. Ahmadis, members of another sect, had been attacked in early 2011 in Banten, leading to three deaths, with perpetrators getting only a few months' jail.
This is why amid signs of intolerant policies and actions, the above leaders bring much hope for Indonesia's democracy. With Jokowi seemingly throwing his weight very selectively, and mostly in a too subtle a manner, it is such local leaders on whom we must rely to end sectarianism and discrimination by the majority in this so-called pluralist country.
Of course, we need the President to consistently pursue his nine-priority Nawacita agenda that includes assuring the 'presence of the state' in fulfilling citizens' rights. But more and more local leaders may feel forced to show more commitment to inclusiveness, as incentives for such attitudes are growing along with local and global recognition.
Citizens place much hope on emerging leaders that look clean, humble and that actively reach out to grassroots communities, such as Jokowi and Bima.
But, once elected, they may have larger priorities to stay in power or seek higher office. Exasperated people then often realize how democracy brings such a tiresome responsibility ' to constantly watch over the individuals they voted into office.
___________________________________
To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News.
For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com
