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Insight: Why do retired officers run for local office?
Party officials also see retirees as “short cuts” to boosting party profiles without spending resources on publicity campaigns.
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Lt. Gen. Edy Rahmayadi leads a ceremony to commemorate the 72th anniversary of the Indonesian Military (TNI) in Banten province on Oct. 5, 2017. At that time, he was the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) chief. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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ndonesia is set to go through its third round of simultaneous direct local elections, which will take place on June 27 in 171 regions (17 provinces, 39 cities and 115 regencies).
There are many concerns over the upcoming elections, ranging from the number of corruption cases plaguing candidates to the potential political and social schisms over identity politics. However, many are more worried about the growing number of retired officers (military and police) running in these local elections.
In North Sumatra, for example, former Army Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) chief Edy Rahmayadi is a governor candidate backed by three major parties. Overall, 18 military and police retirees are running,whether as the top or deputy candidate, accounting for less than 2 percent of the total candidates.
Since the inception of direct local elections in 2015, most of the retirees running for political office have lost. In 2015, of 26 retirees running only seven won, and last year 13 joined the race but only five won. Only a third of retirees have won since 2015 (constituting less than 4 percent of the total 305 local elections over the past three years).
