District electoral system is ideal for RI: Scholar<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Ideal democracy in Indonesia can be achieved
\nonly when the people themselves elect candidates to the House of
\nRepresentatives, instead of having them appointed through a
\nproportional system, a noted political scientist said yesterday.<\/p>\n
Mochtar Pabottingi, a scholar of the Indonesian Institute of
\nSciences, told members of Commission X of the House during a
\nhearing yesterday that the district system, in which voters
\ndirectly nominate their candidates, is most appropriate for
\nIndonesia because of the geographic spread of voters.<\/p>\n
\"Through this system, the representatives are elected from
\nthose who can really air the people's aspirations,\" Mochtar said.<\/p>\n
He warned that changing the election system would not have any
\nimpact on Indonesia's political condition unless the nation is
\nthoroughly prepared.<\/p>\n
The government should not force itself to change the electoral
\nsystem, he said, adding that it was most important that the
\nimplementation of the existing system be improved.<\/p>\n
\"The reason is very simple,\" he said. \"It may not be the
\nsystem which is wrong, but the implementation.\"<\/p>\n
He also warned that any mistake made in changing the system
\ncould fatally affect the country's political life and discredit
\nthe government.<\/p>\n
Mochtar, who heads the institute's Center for Political
\nStudies, has been appointed as chairman of a team specially set
\nup to study the current electoral system.<\/p>\n
Study<\/p>\n
President Soeharto commissioned the institute in February to
\nstudy the possibility of changing the election system from the
\ncurrent proportional representation, to a first-past-the-post
\nsystem.<\/p>\n
The Army has also undertaken a similar study and its
\nprovisional result, announced in June, determined that there was
\nno need for Indonesia to move away from the proportional
\nrepresentative electoral system.<\/p>\n
Under the current system, voters elect one of three political
\nparties -- Golkar, the United Development Party, or the
\nIndonesian Democratic Party. The 400 seats in the House are then
\ndistributed to the three parties according to their shares of the
\nvotes. The parties then appointed their representatives.<\/p>\n
Mochtar stressed that it is the people's perception of how
\ndemocracy is implemented that really counts, rather than what
\nsystem is being adopted.<\/p>\n
As part of the current project, the institute has launched a
\nsurvey in 15 provinces, which includes looking at how past
\ngeneral elections were conducted there and on the political views
\nof the people in those provinces. The institute has also studied
\nthe electoral systems used in other countries.<\/p>\n
Mochtar said the people's growing demand for democracy and
\nfreedom of expression, and the expansion of Indonesia's middle
\nclass, are living examples of stable political changes taking
\nplace in the country.<\/p>\n
\"We have finished the first part of the study and we hope we
\ncan finish it entirely in December. It is the President who will
\nlater decide whether to announce the results of the study,\"
\nMochtar added. (05)<\/p>",
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