Man: Deputy regents (wakil bupati – regent’s representative) want to be regents! Deputy governors (wakil gubernur – governor’s representative) want to be governors! So Mr representative of the people (wakil rakyat) why don’t you want to be one of the people!

Jakarta – The political elite in this country should use the holy fasting month of Ramadan as a moment for introspection and evaluation, to ask whether their policies side with the ordinary people or not.

Jakarta – The number of floating voters is tending to increase. This can be seen not just from the decline in participation levels in elections between 1999 and 2009, but the political parties in general would be unable to hold on to their constituents if an election was held today.

Jakarta – The tales of the New Order regime’s successes, which are being used as a selling point for the Golkar Party, are misleading.

M Hernowo – Case of human rights violations that took place around the time of the fall of the New Order regime have still not been fully resolved. Moreover President Suharto’s decision on May 21, 1998 to release his grip on the reigns power, which he held for 32 years, has been taken advantage of by some groups.

Yohan Wahyu – If we look at the still sidelined state of workers and employees, the need to unite and organise oneself should be a big one. The historical facts in Indonesia however show the reverse, with political parties claiming to be based among workers not in fact “selling well” in the eyes of the voting public.

Indra Subagja, Jakarta – The National Republic Party (Partai Nasrep) has registered itself with the Department of Justice and Human Rights (Kemenkum HAM).

Hendra A Setyawan, Jakarta – The discourse on the simplification of political parties such as by increasing the parliamentary threshold (the minimum number of votes required to obtain a seat in the national parliament) is the principle challenge facing new political parties seeking to get into the parliament through the 2014 general elections.

Exhaust: Bank Century, Lapindo disaster, racial, religious & ethnic conflicts, judicial & tax mafia, migrant workers, Yogyakarta gudeg, tiwul food poisoning.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) for the period 2009-2014 has been deliberating a packet of three political laws, namely Law Number 22/2007 on Election Organisers, Law Number 2/2008 on Political Parties and Law Number 10/2008 on the Election of Members of the DPR, DPD and DPRD.