March 28, 2024
iden

Notes for Our Elections

A week has passed, also a week still slips a feeling of anxiety in my mind regarding the evaluation towards the 2015 Simultaneous Elections that were held by West Sumatra KPU that involved every District/City Electoral Commission (KPU) as well as many stakeholders whether it be public figure or NGO (LSM). We are fully aware that election is the peoples party, velocity of money during the elections is incredibly fast and remarkable. Everybody feels the impact of election, starting from shops that provide attributes for campaign, survey institutes that provide politics consultant service, to the people who got politics money (serangan fajar), and almost all the people from every level are touched by alek gadang elections.

Technically concerning elections, to be frank I personally have minimum knowledge related to how KPU runs their job in bridging politics rights of the people that are choosing and to be chosen. All that I know all this time is more about the macro problems that are visible in our politics, however when I am involved in that evaluation, I can understand when I am faced by micro problems that I used to be unaware of. There were several interesting topics in the discussion that I participated in during the evaluation of the previous Simultaneous Elections. The first one is related to the candidates determination and C6 Form, I assumed that these two matters are able to picture a quite interesting reality in our elections.

First, related to the candidates determination. Statements from Husni Kamil Manik as the Chief of KPU RI during the evaluation, in my opinion were very hilarious. That all this time there have been numerous ridiculous behaviours of district head candidates. There were a lot of candidates who often times violate the rules that have been made by KPU such as delaying the requirements or even pretended not to acknowledge the requirements for nomination. Even though KPU was clear enough and transparent relating to the requirements of the election for anyone who wants to elect themselves. Clearly, Husni stated that there were a lot of candidates who were not decent enough to become a district head however they were elected anyway, Husni and the audience laughed when he told the story. We can imagine how bad our democracy is right now due to the failure of politics parties in running the politics recruitment function.

Second, the matter related to C6 Form. All this time C6 is considered to have a big effect on the participation level of voters. That is why KPU also stated that C6 should not be only considered as an invitation but an announcement, the logic twisting has a purpose of making the public still want to vote even though they do not have C6 because participation can still be channelled by showing KTP. However, the logic is still hard to accept, because editorially the content of C6 is invitation to vote and due to that it is prohibited for the public to vote if not invited. A fact in the field shows that the not maximal distribution of C6 depends on KPPS that is not deft enough or do not meet the people who will be given the C6 so that C6 has to be returned, this matter also arises opinion differences between KPU and Bawaslu where according to KPU when someone cannot be met, C6 must be returned, while Bawaslu stated that whether the recipient is met or not the C6 must be distributed. The solution that is offered in this discussion is that KPPS must be defter in distributing C6 and Bawaslu must synchronize their perception towards the Community Caring Justice Post (PKPU)

Democracy Evaluation

Dilemma in the elections is a prove that we are still in learning process in holding proper elections, this is certainly to improve our democracy that we recently held along with reformation. We still remember that sovereignty was once embodied in elections by the members of The House of Representatives where they wanted the district head to be re-elected by Legislative Council, with the reason that direct elections will be troubled by social conflicts, money politic and the most talked about is high cost democracy.

In reality, democracy in Indonesia forced “Fundamental Evaluative” to be done, whether in the system, culture or democracy rulings. First, democracy system that really glorifies sovereignty, in reality does not always produce a leader that acts according to the peoples messages. For that reason, public is forced to be intelligent in voting the leaders is a main factor so that continuity of will between mandate giver and mandate receiver. Certainly with this half-cooked democracy, Indonesia needs a blow in politics education aspect. When the public is aware about politics then stability will be born and it can be ascertained that democracy will be according to a common will.

Second, the governments performance tend to be unstable and too much decorated by transactional politics. The readiness to engage in Indonesian political stage, where evil agreements are seen in the television showing that there is no political maturity. Third, democracy journey all this time does not with the welfare enhancement that has been mandated by our Countrys Consitution. Beside politics elite that often times lie about their promises, the people are not involved much in participating in politics because all this time elections that is said to be a real embodiment of politics for public while we acknowledge that publics participation is more than only voting in elections.

Why is it a must?

We are fully aware that the money that is needed for democracy is a lot, and because of that amount of money, politics parties lost their ideology, Ideologies that were said to be equated with authority ideology. Related to the candidates determination and C6 form matter, what I see is that we tend to only give monotone solutions even those solutions are not interesting at all. As if we*re walking in a labyrinth when we want to hold an election, because there are just too many rules that actually complicate us from stepping forward.

If only every candidate go through a strict selection process I am sure that KPU will not have to be overwhelmed in candidate determination. We all know that becoming a district head or other public officials is equated as a profession, everyone who wants profession has to go through a strict selections, especially local leaders. The Chief of KPU himself has stated that there were a lot of district head candidates who were not decent but were still elected, this fact proves that the people are still unable to choose candidates with good qualities. We cannot rely on elections to make changes for our regions. If only every candidate has passed certification or something similar, I am sure that the failure of politics parties in running the recruitment function also the publics poor choice in voting for district head candidates can be minimalized.

Whereas for C6, why do we have to use C6? Just because that piece of paper, a quite substantial chaos arises. To be said, one rotten apple spoils the whole barrel. If using C6 is too complicated why do we have to force using it. People who are aware of politics will understand how important it is to participate in elections. Try using voting card or KTP when voting, even if needed we can change the system with E-Voting. Certainly technical problems such as logistics and else will not be met, we ourselves, always want to be quick in bureaucracy or administration but in reality we are the ones who make ourselves trapped by complicated rules. Hopefully my little wild proposal this time is interesting enough, everything that I delivered because I still feel anxious enough with our elections. I hope that our elections can be better, only for a better Indonesia. []

DELLY FERDIAN

Translated by Andina