Brawijaya University’s Journal of Interdisciplinary Socio-Economic and Community Study (JISCOS) has recently published my paper titled "Unleashing Community Empowerment through a New Regional Autonomy Concept in the 2024 Elections." While academic in nature, the message can be summarized as follows.

The upcoming 2024 elections will create a significant new dynamic, with all regional heads elected after national elections. The media has focused on changes in election management. Little attention has been paid to the significance of preparing long-term plans by new leaders and legislative bodies in 2025.

Approximately 60 percent of voters will be young people concerned about their future. The focus of campaigns should be on their long-term future and on medium-term plans to initiate the building of a better future for Indonesia’s young people. These elections need to be about their empowerment.

They will be empowered by a new regulatory environment that fosters a growing yet sustainable economy. Key to this is fostering economic orderliness, by governance ("tata kelola") in a broader sense, including governance within businesses and communities. Business governance covers business relationships, collaboration among small and large businesses, labor, suppliers, markets, government and the community. Community self-governance is by custom, religion, village and civil society organizations.

Government, business and community governance is dynamic and can change to empower businesses, workers and the community to govern themselves and facilitate collaboration among them.

Law No. 25/2009 on public services overlooks the most essential type of service for sustainable development: creating order through regulating behavior. Licensing imposes conditions to bring more order to public behavior. Thus, enforcing these license conditions is a public service that contributes to improving the community's quality of life.

Article 1(2) of the Constitution states that sovereignty belongs to the people. But Article 18 grants autonomy to regional heads and legislative bodies with no mention of the people. Sovereignty should manifest itself in regions by leaders and legislative bodies acknowledging that power lies with the people and they serve the people. For 2024, political parties and candidates should demonstrate that.

Regencies and cities cannot improve their economies in isolation. Their autonomy lies in the ability to collaborate, as the strength of an economy lies in its interconnectedness. There are numerous connections to resources for farmers and businesses, processing facilities for their products, banks and business services, and transportation and telecommunications networks.

While many of these connections extend beyond the jurisdiction of local governments, the majority are contained within provinces. Provinces serve as economic zones where people from regencies and cities collaborate in economic activities, including cross-provincial collaboration. Provincial governments play three essential roles, to ensure infrastructure necessary for connectivity, to maintain order and to provide a framework for collaboration.

Economic development varies across regions, and each region has unique characteristics and deserves special attention. Even each village is unique and should receive special treatment to ensure equality in the services provided.

Acknowledging and respecting this uniqueness while promoting special treatment should be the foremost duty of representatives from each community. Members should first and foremost be representatives of their unique communities. With modern technology, they can spend most of their time among their electorates, understanding their specific needs. The role of legislative bodies can shift from creating new policies to continually improving existing ones to better serve their communities.

Long-term and medium-term plans should prioritize empowering communities by actively engaging them in the planning process. Political parties can promise to change the way planning is done after the elections, earning trust by engaging with the community during the campaign to understand their uniqueness and special needs.

By actively involving the community in the 2024 elections, elected leaders and representatives will gain a deeper understanding of community expectations and aspirations, laying a foundation for more inclusive governance.

The opportune moment to start is now, without waiting for regulatory changes. Political actions can take various forms, such as meetings between candidates and communities on popular issues, discussions on campaign promises through social media and public awareness campaigns.

In my paper, I presented a series of recommendations. Firstly, political parties should agree to change their approach to campaigning. Secondly, the government should provide guidance to political parties and candidates on engaging with the community during the campaign.

Thirdly, long-term planning should focus on creating economic opportunities for all, while addressing significant challenges like climate change. Medium-term plans should prioritize immediate actions in addressing these challenges.

The fourth recommendation is for local governments to extend their responsibilities beyond their own boundaries and collaborate with strategic partners, including provincial governments and neighboring regions, thus forming a virtual commonwealth bloc for economic partnerships.

The fifth recommendation is to move away from excessive regulation and focus on regulating to serve the community by creating social order. The sixth recommendation emphasizes the commitment to integrity.

Lastly, I recommend that universities across the country should sponsor public lectures for candidates as soon as possible to explain this new political scenario and why political campaigning must change.

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The writer is director for governance and accountability at Osana International, Jakarta, and professional associate of the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis at the University of Canberra.

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