All four candidates who gained the available seats for the Jakarta electoral district out of the 136 in the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) are familiar faces in politics, while two of them are incumbents.

Senators Fahira Idris and Sabam Sirait retained their seats, attracting 581,108 votes and 626,618 votes, respectively.

In the 2014 elections, Fahira, 51, secured her seat with 511,323 votes and in the council she was the head of DPD Committee III overseeing education, religion and health.

Prior to being a senator, Fahira was a businesswoman and a politician. In Jakarta’s 2017 gubernatorial election she supported the ticket of Anies Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno.

After the gubernatorial election, Fahira founded the Bang Japar Legal Aid Foundation, alleging there had been fraud and intimidation at polling stations.

Her father Fahmi Idris was the labor minister during the BJ Habibie administration and her mother, Kartini, was the daughter of KH Hasan Basri, a former Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chairman.

Sabam, 82, is the oldest of the four senators-elect from Jakarta.

In the 2014 election, he only gained the fifth-most votes with 237,273. However, on Jan. 15, 2018, he replaced senator AM Fatwa, who passed away.

Sabam had been in politics since 1961, starting in the now-defunct Indonesian Christian Party (Parkindo) and serving as a House of Representatives lawmaker for seven terms since 1967. He was also one of the founders of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), formed by the amalgamation of several nationalist political parties.

Sabam sided with Megawati Soekarnoputri under the current Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) when she was forced out of his party in 1996.

Meanwhile, Sylviana Murni, 60, spent up to 34 years in public service before resigning from her last post as the Jakarta governor’s assistant for culture and tourism in September 2016 and then competed in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election to be deputy governor alongside Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono.

Her ticket lost in the first round of the election, but it started Sylviana’s full-time political career.

Sylviana is no stranger to politics as from 1997 to 1999 she was a Jakarta Council member, but resigned from the position as a 1999 government regulation banned civil servants from becoming members of political parties.

Sylviana gained the fourth-most votes, 455,182, in the 2019 elections, securing her a seat in the DPD.

Jimly Asshiddiqie, 63, gained the most votes, 644,063, securing his position as a senator-elect.

Jimly is well known as the first chief justice of the Constitutional Court, founded in August 2003. He served as chief justice for five years before being replaced by Mahfud MD.

He also headed the Election Organization Ethics Council (DKPP) from 2012 to 2017 and the advisory board of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) from 2013 to 2017. He is now the deputy head of the Board of Degrees and Honors from 2015 to 2020.

Jimly is also a noted academic, having taught at the University of Indonesia’s School of Law since 1981 and having been appointed professor in 1998.

He is also heading the Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals Association from 2015 to 2020.

Lingkar Madani political analyst Ray Rangkuti said that the relevance of the DPD would likely depend on the individuals running the council because of its limited responsibilities.

“If the individuals have the initiative, they could propose and created changes,” Ray said.

He also said that Jimly should be considered for the DPD’s leadership board based on his track record and ability to reinvigorate previously overlooked organizations.

Lucius Karus, a senior researcher at the Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi), said that this year’s election made two popular figures, Jimly and Sylviana, senators from Jakarta.

However, as the DPD’s authority is still limited, the two new senators might not be able to fully represent Jakarta’s interests.

“But I think there is still hope, especially with Jimly who understand constitutional law well, to be able to strengthen the DPD’s authority in the coming period,” Lucius said.

He said the DPD had previously tried to strengthen its position, but had yet to succeed.

Ray said that Jakarta, being the capital city, does not necessarily have region-specific problems and the main purpose of the DPD is to present regional causes to the central government.

However, the senators-elect from Jakarta could work together with the city administration to maintain the harmony and plurality of the capital city, since its image as a tolerant city was tarnished by the 2017 gubernatorial election, Ray added.

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