Vitorio Mantalean, Ardito Ramadhan, Jakarta – Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) Executive Director Djayadi Hanan believes that President Prabowo Subianto's proposal for regional heads to be elected by Regional Houses of Representatives (DPRD) is unsuitable because Indonesia adheres to a different system.
According to Hanan, Prabowo's statement which compared the electoral system in Indonesia with Malaysia and Singapore was inappropriate because Malaysia and Singapore are not yet categorised as democratic countries.
"There are two issues here. First, in my opinion, Singapore and Malaysia have not been classified as democratic countries. So for example you can't compare them apples to apples with Indonesia", said Hanan at the 2024 Indonesia Electoral Reform Outlook Forum which was held on Wednesday December 18.
"This was once applied in Indonesia from 2000 to 2005, the people elected members of the DPR [House of Representatives]. The people know that members of the DPR would choose the regional heads, but they do not know who the regional head were, where they come from", he said.
Hanan also said that Indonesia also does not use a parliamentary system as is applied in Malaysia and Singapore.
He said that under a parliamentary system, from the beginning people knew that when they chose the people's representatives, the members of the legislature will then choose the people who will sit in government.
Hanan is also convinced that the proposal has the potential to create a polemic about Indonesian democracy. One of the issues that is a consequence of this is that the Indonesian political system will shift towards a parliamentary system.
"There is a problem in the sense of democratic representation, unless our system is changed", he said.
Earlier, University of Indonesia (UI) electoral law expert Titi Anggraini said that the public should not forget that the change from a system where regional heads were elected by the DPRD to one where it was directly in the hands of the people was motivated by the rampant practices of money politics, where there was the buying and selling of support or the buying and selling of seats and votes by DPRD members in the process of nominating regional heads (candidacy buying).
In addition to this, there was the problem of representation because the regional heads chosen by the DPRD were seen as not being in line with the communities' aspirations. "In a number of regions, DPRD offices were vandalised by the public who were dissatisfied with the results of the election by the DPRD", Anggraini told Kompas.com on Wednesday.
"If the election [of regional heads] is returned to the DPRD it might be cheaper, but it does not necessarily eliminate the practice of money politics and also the high cost of politics in the selection process", she said.
According to Anggraini, the root of the problem is poor law enforcement and democracy within the political parties that has never really been fixed or improved.
"We only seem to be moving the problem from the public arena into the closed arena of the DPRD. However, the impact will be very big, namely the sovereignty of the people being held hostage and the community increasingly kept away from public affairs", she said.
Anggraini also warned that the Constitutional Court (MK) once issued ruling Number 55/PUU-XXII/2019 which stated that the formulation of laws should not frequently change the direct election mechanism in Indonesia.
Meanwhile in Constitutional Court ruling Number 85/PUU-XX/2022 it states that the regime of regional elections (Pilkada) and general elections (Pemilu) must be the same.
"So the Pilkada must be held in accordance with the foundations and principles of the Pemilu as well, namely that they be direct, general, free, honest and fair, and that the implementation is carried out by the election organisers who also organise the legislative and presidential elections, namely the KPU [General Elections Commission], the Bawaslu [Elections Supervisory Board] and the DKPP [Election Organisers Ethics Council]", explained Anggraini.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "LSI Sebut Kepala Daerah Dipilih DPRD Tak Cocok untuk Indonesia".]
