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Jakarta Post

Rationality, deficit in democracy

When the simultaneous regional elections were held on Dec

Ani Soetjipto (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, December 17, 2015

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Rationality, deficit in democracy

W

hen the simultaneous regional elections were held on Dec. 9, my colleagues and I had the opportunity to monitor a number of polling stations in Badung regency, Bali.

The lustrously adorned stations and election organizing officers clad in attractive traditional costumes failed to attract a significant part of the electorate, though. At the stations observed, the average rate of participation was around 30-35 percent of the number of people registered on the final voters'€™ lists.

At one polling station on the way to the airport, counting revealed that voters had awarded victory to the regent candidate pair of Nyoman Giri Prasta (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, PDI-P) and I Ketut Suiasa (National Democratic Party, Nasdem), over the rival pair of I Made Sudiana (Democratic Party) and I Nyoman Sutrisno (Gerindra).

Regional elections should actually be carried out with great zeal as festivities, but all the polling stations we surveyed saw minimum public participation, lacking fervor and joy.

In fact, regional elections have been promoted to consolidate local democracy, with the aim of improving central-regional relations and eliminating the financial gap between well-heeled and poor candidates, as part of the campaign budget is covered by the state.

Such expectations haven'€™t fully materialized. The public has for quite some time been apathetic to politics in the country. Media campaigns managed by the Regional Elections Commission with state funds apparently have yet to boost public involvement, and election campaigns fail to sufficiently introduce candidates and their visions to voters.

The concurrent general elections haven'€™t in any obvious way reduced corruption either. Distribution of free basic necessities, free health examinations and transport allowances was still rampant.

An anticorruption monitoring group revealed that political funds were, among other sources, taken from social aid and village funds in the third campaign week, especially by incumbent candidates.

Will regional elections produce better regional leaders and make regional governance more effective, as envisaged by the noble objectives of the regional polls? So far, not only good candidates have emerged. Local voters actually have their standards, and generally rational voters will choose candidates of good quality and performance.

In regions with aspiring mayors and regents, like Surabaya (Tri Rismaharini) and Banyuwangi in East Java (Azwar Anas) and Gunung Kidul in Yogyakarta (Badingah), turnout was fairly high.

But when the candidates fielded were mostly of inferior quality, local communities seemed to be helpless and less enthusiastic about voting. The regional elections on the outskirts of the capital, in the municipalities of Depok, South Tangerang and Serang, for instance, offered mediocre contestants, leaving voters little choice.

With low electability, the future of the regions in the next five years is at stake.

At the same time, the failure of incumbent candidates like those in Bantul, Yogyakarta and Sambas, West Kalimantan, proved that rational voters could punish less capable incumbents and experiment with new hopefuls for change.

The other interesting phenomenon in candidacy has been the virtually insignificant role of political parties.

Weak discipline and loose ties between cadres and parties have enabled the activists to change their course by joining other parties at any time.

The split in the Golkar Party central board, for instance, did not make Golkar cadres disappear. They continued to survive through other vehicles, as was the case in Badung.

Badung'€™s Suiasa (Golkar) was backed by Nasdem, and I Made Sudiana (also Golkar) was nominated by the Democratic Party.

Another example was Rita Widyasari, the incumbent regent of Kutai Kartanegara in East Kalimantan, who ran on an independent ticket though she is from Golkar. Regional elections have thus put greater emphasis on the central role of individual capacity with party backgrounds becoming insignificant.

Transactional politics hasn'€™t been fully eliminated and has even tended to thrive. Indonesia'€™s high-cost post-reform democracy causes politics to require big financial assets. Political engineering to build democracy, marked by transformation of structures, institutions and rules or procedures, is utilized by capital owners to dictate public affairs, by their intervention through the media and other symbolic powers in public spaces, which ends in profit-making.

Electoral victories become pathways to maximum financial gains. This explains why allegedly corrupt candidates could still be fielded in regional elections, as was the case in North Sulawesi.

What makes transactional politics flourish is the fact that concurrent regional elections take place after the establishment of the Regional Legislative Councils (DPRD), so that the results of regional elections politically do not synchronize with the DPRD. Originally, leaders arising from simultaneous regional elections had expected majority support from the DPRD.

Voters in the regional elections chose leaders more out of personal appeal (more familiar names as incumbents, popularity or dynasty), rather than for the programs offered to respond to regional needs.

So even if the elections ran fairly smoothly without significant impediments, the regional polls as the largest democratic experiment in Indonesia apparently have yet to achieve substantive democracy.

Regional elections are not just a matter of electing leaders and increasing public participation.

The most important challenge lies in the presentation and deliberation of matters of public interest for a fair allocation of resources.

The recent regional elections have only been able to present packages of leaders to voters, but these packages failed to break down their vision and mission and introduce programs to the electorate.

In fact, voters and citizens in general are the candidates'€™ virtual employers, who should enjoy the gains of public policies on the fair allocation of resources, adopted by leaders emerging from a real democratic process.
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The writer is a lecturer at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia, Jakarta

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