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Scrutinize your candidates
Voting for candidates who engage in vote buying will very likely result in corrupt politicians, who steal state funds allocated for improving the well-being of the nation.
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Rosalia Wewengkang, 90, (center) walks toward the voting booth with two people assisting her at the Padarambu polling station 09 in Watunggene subdistrict, Kota Komba district, East Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara on election day on April 17, 2019. (JP/Markus Makur)
T
he public will have ample time between August and September to vet and challenge the eligibility of thousands of legislative candidates, who are currently undergoing administrative screening at the General Elections Commission (KPU). We call on the people to actively participate in scrutinizing the candidates to make sure the members of the next legislature will provide the checks and balances mechanism that makes democracy work.
We also urge the KPU, the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) and registered poll observers to disseminate information about the legislative candidates to the voters, both in the country and overseas, so that they will not make a decision inside the polling booths based on monetary rewards but on their expectations for a better Indonesia.
The recent arrest of Communications and Information Minister Johnny Plate, who is also the secretary-general of the NasDem Party and one of the party’s legislative candidates, as well as the imprisonment of many politicians from various parties over the last few years, should serve as yet another wake-up call for the nation to vote for the right persons in the legislative and presidential elections in February next year.
Johny is the fifth Cabinet minister during the administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to have fallen from grace due to graft. Former sports minister Imam Nahrawi, former social affairs ministers Idrus Marham and Juliari Batubara, and former fisheries minister Edhy Prabowo were convicted of corruption. They are all politicians from the ruling coalition.
We should not let ourselves fall prey to the tricks of “rotten apple” politicians in the upcoming elections.
The high number of politicians, both in the national and regional levels, who have been found guilty of corruption should teach voters a supreme lesson. Come Feb. 14, 2024, they must not repeat their mistake of voting for a candidate simply because of his or her ethnicity, religion or even physical attractiveness, without digging deeper into their track records.
An estimated 206 million voters will go to polling stations next February to elect members of the House of Representatives, Regional Representative Council, provincial legislatures, regency/municipal legislatures, and the president and vice president simultaneously.
