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Jakarta’s democracy hit lowest point in 2016: Agency
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People decorate the TPS IV polling station in Gambir, Central Jakarta, using Betawi ondel-ondel figures on April 18. (JP/Jerry Adiguna)
D
emocracy in Jakarta was on the decline in 2016, hitting its lowest point in the past seven years, the city’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS) says.
Jakarta’s score fell to 70.85 in 2016, below the 100 score for a full democracy. In 2015, the index was at 85.32.
The democracy index ranged from 71.18 to 84.70 during the period of 2009 to 2014.
During a press conference on Thursday, Jakarta BPS head, Thoman Pardosi, revealed some cases that led to the gloomy state of democracy in the city.
As an example, during the run up to the gubernatorial election, the first round of which was held in February 2017, campaign activities conducted by certain parties were rejected.
“The year 2016, leading up to the election, was when some undemocratic incidents happened,” Thoman said on Thursday as quoted by kompas.com.
Apart from that, some protests violated regulations.
Law enforcers often responded to incidents by using tear gas, which contributed to the decline in the democracy index in Jakarta, he said.
Thoman added that in 2016, the City Council failed to deliberate a significant amount of regulations and recommendations.
The other reasons for the decline were political parties’ failure to regenerate their ranks and the city administration’s inability to facilitate democratic activities because of a lack of funds.
Despite the decline, Thoman said the democracy index in the city was still higher than the national score, which was 70.09. (cal)
