Adhyasta Dirgantara, Ardito Ramadhan, Jakarta – Adi Prayitno, a political observer from the Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University (UIN) in Jakarta, says there is an impression that the political elite are afraid of the ordinary people, which is why they are floating the idea of electing regional heads (Pilkada) through Regional Representative Councils (DPRD).
Prayitno suspects the reason is that the public often "punishes" a particular politician or party by not voting for them during elections.
"There's an impression that the elites are starting to be afraid of the people. The people are becoming more critical and difficult for the elites to control. The people have a way of punishing the elites by not electing them in regional elections because of their poor performance. This seems to be what they fear, which is why they want to do it through the DPRD", Prayitno told Kompas.com on Monday December 29.
Prayitno emphasised that the people are 100 percent disadvantaged by the system of regional elections through the DPRD, because with this system they no longer have the special right to choose their leaders in their respective regions.
"Yet the heart of democracy is choosing leaders directly, not through representation in the DPRD", said Prayitno. "[But] amidst the often-criticised performance of the DPRD, this will actually be a paradox because it cuts off the rights of the people", he said.
Meanwhile, Prayitno asserted that the high cost of politics cannot be used as a pretext to change the regional election system. Because, if that is the reason, then what needs to be improved is the competition system, where regional head candidates give money to the public.
"Money politics, high political costs, the answer is not for regional heads to be elected by the DPRDs, but to improve the competition system, which all stems from the political parties. The majority of regional head candidates are from political parties", said Prayitno.
High campaign costs
Earlier, a number of political parties expressed support for regional heads being elected by DPRDs instead of being directly elected by the people. These parties include, among others, the President Prabowo Subianto's Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), the Golkar Party the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the National Democrat Party (NasDem).
Gerindra Party Secretary General Sugiono said that his party supports regional heads being elected by DPRDs because the campaign costs to become a regional head through direct regional elections are very expensive. According to Suginono, the high cost of campaigning often becomes an obstacle for competent individuals to become regional heads.
Sugiono believes that in the future, people with the necessary abilities should be able to run as candidates for regional heads without being hindered by costs.
"The campaign costs for a regional head candidates, let's be open about it, the figures are prohibitive. Expensive. And this is something we must also evaluate, we must find a way so that people who truly have the ability to serve their communities, to serve the nation and the country, can come forward without being hindered by the extraordinary campaign costs", said Sugiono in a statement on Monday.
"From the efficiency side, both in terms of process, mechanism, and also the budget we support the plan to hold regional elections through the DPRDs", he added.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Parpol Usul Pilkada Lewat DPRD, Pengamat: Ada Kesan Elite Takut ke Rakyat".]
