Campaigns should be more educational<\/p>\n
This year's election campaign is basked in new restrictions
\nand new techniques, such as "dialog campaigns". J. Soedjati
\nDjiwandono from the Center for Strategic and International
\nStudies muses over the essence of the general election.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): An election is still primarily an exercise in
\npracticing democracy for a majority of people in developing
\ncountries like Indonesia.<\/p>\n
While electoral campaigns are aimed at winning as many votes
\nas possible, especially among "floating votes", they should be
\neducational as well. We have been witnessing recently, however,
\nthat election campaigns are increasingly becoming less
\neducational.<\/p>\n
One cannot blame political parties alone, which are themselves
\nin need of sophistication and experience in the art of modern
\ndemocracy. The government's limitations on mass mobilization by
\ncontesting parties are understandable in light of violent social
\nand political instability over the past year or so.<\/p>\n
But the ban on criticism against government policies during
\nthe campaign on one hand, and methods of campaigning advocated by
\nthe government on the other, tend to almost render the whole
\nexercise meaningless.<\/p>\n
The so-called "dialog campaigns", particularly on radio and
\ntelevision, sound and look like they are staged, in which
\nquestions from members of an apparently selected audience are, at
\nbest, answered with empty cliches, if not ignored altogether.<\/p>\n
Most mass rallies appear like narcissist exercises by
\npolitical parties meeting their own members, supporters and well-
\nwishers.<\/p>\n
Fiery speeches delivered were thus "preaching to the choir",
\ninterspersed with tumultuous yells and shouts of empty slogans,
\nperhaps for lack of anything meaningful to say. And rowdy
\nmotorcades that often follow tend to frighten away many of those
\nthat might otherwise be supporters. Interestingly, the government
\nitself has coined the term "festival of democracy" to refer to
\nthe general election.<\/p>\n
The most ironical part of it all is the practice of political
\nparties offering "programs" (platforms) without any idea on how
\nto carry them out or who they will nominate as candidates to lead
\nthe government in accomplishing them.<\/p>\n
One of the most important decisions to be made by the People's
\nConsultative Assembly (MPR) after the election will be on the
\nbroad lines of state policy. This mandate will be entrusted to
\nthe newly elected President to carry out as set forth by MPR.<\/p>\n
However, the present regime set a precedent after the first
\nelection in 1971, which exactly reversed the process. At least
\nthis was the practice until the third general election, whereby
\nthe President submitted to the new MPR his own draft of state
\npolicy, as an annex to his speech at the swearing-in ceremony of
\nnew members of the House of Representatives (DPR) and MPR.<\/p>\n
The draft had been prepared by a team of his own creation
\naccording to a recently launched book by former vice president
\nSudharmono, Pengalaman Dalam Masa Pengabdian: Sebuah Otobiografi
\n(Experiences in the Period of Service: An Autobiography, 1997,
\npp.236-7,276,284), later decreed by the new MPR.<\/p>\n
The President seemed to have assumed on those occasions that
\nhe would be reelected when the new MPR convened its general
\nsession. Whatever the case may be, the process, which may well
\nhave been continued since then, has turned the constitutional
\nprovision on that particular matter upside-down.<\/p>\n
Hence the importance of nominating presidential candidates by
\npolitical parties during the campaign period, so that the
\nPresident would, in effect, be directly elected by the people.
\nAnd here, as in many other aspects of our political system, lies
\nthe importance of political reform.<\/p>\n
To be sure, democratization is a long, never-ending process
\nwith its ups and downs. But despite a series of elections, little
\nsubstantive progress has been made and little effort to help
\nspeed it up. On the contrary, we have been experiencing setbacks,
\nespecially since the introduction of a special screening for
\nlegislative candidates and increasing limitations on the conduct
\nof election campaigns.<\/p>\n
Vested interest in the perpetuation and concentration of
\npower, with all its dire implications, may be the deeper cause.
\nOver a century ago, British historian John Emerich Edward
\nDalberg-Acton, later Lord Acton (1834-1902), gave a warning
\nagainst the danger of such a tendency: "All power tends to
\ncorrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."<\/p>",
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