More Seats, More Problems

Adding more seats to the parliament might not solve the problem of proportion. Adding more seats might instead end in budget wastage.

Initially, the idea to add more seats to the parliament is proposed to solve the problem of disproportionate representation. In addition, the idea was also proposed as a respond to the emergence of new autonomous local area and the increase in population size. There are many local areas in Indonesia where they have more seats than needed (over-represented) while many others have less than needed (under-represented). These are the reasons why many members of the Parliament propose the idea to add more seats to the Parliament.

Long-drawn Debate

The problem of disproportionate seats allocation has been a chronic problem for Indonesian elections. In 2004, for example, inconsistencies arose during the seats allocation process for the Province of Papua, Maluku, North Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara, and Aceh. In 2009, the allocation of 24 seats for South Sulawesi was deemed too much (over-represented).

In 2014 Elections, parliamentary seats for Riau and Riau Island was the most expensive. With total population of 1,685,698 people, the Province of Riau Island was eligible for four parliamentary seats. However, according to Law No.8/2012, Riau Island should have only receives three seats. Therefore, there is a seat for Riau Island which worth 561.899 people living in the province. Meanwhile, in average, one seat in Indonesian parliament only represents 405.335 people.

According to a calculation conducted by the government, there are many local areas in need of additional seats. Those local areas are Lampung, West Kalimantan, Papua, North Sumatera, Jambi, South Sumatera, Jakarta, West Java, Southeast Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara, and North Kalimantan (North Kalimantan is a new autonomous local area).

Many members of the Parliament then use this calculation as an excuse to propose the idea to add 19 additional seats to the Parliament. They want to add two more seats for the Province of Riau, West Kalimantan, Papua, and Lampung; one more seats for North Sumatera, Riau Island, Jakarta, West Java, Southeast Tenggara, Jambi, West Nusa Tenggara, and South Sumatera; and three more seats for North Kalimantan. DPR refuse to subtract seats from over-represented areas because they do not want to cause political instability in those areas.

“We have our rationale. We don’t want to subtract from over-represented areas because we don’t want to cause political instability in those areas. We have to find a way to add more seats for under-represented areas without taking from existing arrangement,” says the Chief of the Special Committee for the new Elections Law Bill, Benny K. Harman, in Jakarta (05/29).

Meanwhile, the government, represented by the General Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, has stated their objection to the idea. The government has conducted a simulation which shows that seats reallocation is possible. Even if the government has to add more seats, they would only willing to add three additional seats for the new local area, North Kalimantan.

“We want to maintain the current number of seats in the Parliament. However, members of the Special Committee want us to add another 19 seats. We can’t do that, because clearly we can simply take some seats from over-represented areas to be distributed to under-represented and new area,” says Yuswandi A. Temenggung, the General Secretary of the Home Affairs Ministry, in Jakarta (05/29).

Members of the Parliament insist on adding new seats. Yandri Susanto, the Chief of the Special Committee from the National Mandate Party, says that he and his team have already agreed not to take seats from over-represented areas. Yandri also says that there would not be any right distribution formula because Indonesia has a specific political characteristic.

“There isn’t one simple calculation in regards with this issue. Area-based and population-based approach won’t work. This is Indonesia,” says Yandri.

The meeting on that Monday evening was running in circle. Both the government and members of the Parliament insisted to hold on to their own argument.

Wrong Solution

During the subsequent meeting on the next day (05/30), Tjahjo Kumolo, the Minister of Home Affairs, intervened. He says the government is willing to add 10 to 15 additional seats to the Parliament.

“The government understands the rationale behind the idea, considering the total population to seat ratio, etc. Initially, we want only to add 5 seats: three for North Kalimantan, one for Riau, and another one for Riau Island. But then we consider the reason behind Parliament’s insistence on adding 19 more seats and decided to propose the idea to add 10 to 15 more seats. It is up to members of Parliament how they will allocate those additional seats,” says Tjahjo (05/30).

Members of Parliament immediately agree with this proposal. In only about fifteen minutes, the Special Committee members ended the meeting, resulting in the government and members of Parliament will add 15 more seats to the Parliament. Many people deem this result as a wise compromise.

However, for many civil activists, the result need to be criticized. Merely adding more seats to Parliament, admittedly, will resolve the under-represented issue for many areas. However, it does not resolve the proportionality problem in the first place. There will still be inequality of representation.

“The resolution does not guarantee proportionality of representation,” says Heroik Pratama, a researcher from the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), in Jakarta (06/02).

In addition, the government gives freedom to members of the Parliament to allocate the addition seats as they wish. This will result in conflict of interest within the Parliament. Political party will strive to allocate additional seats in area where they usually win in order to gain dominance in the 2019 Legislative Elections.

The seat addition is also inefficient financially. It will cost the government 56 billion rupiahs every year. Activists from Indonesia Budget Center (IBC) are disappointed by members of the Parliament who disparage this budgetary waste.

“I regret the fact that the members of the Special Committee disparage this 56 billion of budgetary squander while, at the same time, President Joko Widodo is doing his best to do austerity,” says Roy in Jakarta (05/30).

According to IBC’s calculation, every parliamentary member cost around 3.7 billion rupiahs a year, which includes: Rp. 694.73 million of salary and other benefits, Rp. 420 million of technical assistants’ salary(up to five technical assistants), Rp. 116.65 million of down payment for a car, Rp. 2.36 billion of recess activities, and Rp. 150 million of operational and procurement of aspiration house program.

This budget does not include the cost for miscellany of facilities such as house, office, and official travel expenses.

Therefore, adding more seats to the Parliament is not the right move, according to Roy, IBC recommends the government to maintain the current total number of seats and think about how to reallocate the seats in local parliament more proportionately.