Hail to democracy<\/p>\n
Monday's explosion at the General Elections Commission (KPU)
\noffice aside, there was not a lot of excitement to mark the
\nannouncement of the official results of the July 5 presidential
\nelection. Perhaps there were not many surprises to begin with,
\nand certainly not enough for most people, not even the two front-
\nrunners who now go into the second round in September, to openly
\ncelebrate. The explosion, while serious and requiring thorough
\ninvestigation, should not be allowed to distract us from the fact
\nthat Indonesia has completed one more stage in the exercise of
\nelecting its leaders through democratic means.<\/p>\n
Considering that this is the first time Indonesia has held a
\ndirect presidential election, perhaps we as a nation deserve to
\npat ourselves on the back for a job relatively well done. It was
\nnot the perfect election that everyone would have loved to have
\nseen, but it went off peacefully (at least until Monday) and
\nrelatively smoothly. But such is the state of the national psyche
\nafter so many crises over the past few years that we often forget
\nor neglect to acknowledge our own hard work and achievements.<\/p>\n
The KPU's final tally confirmed the preliminary results that
\nit had been diligently putting out and updating almost every
\nhour, and which the public and the media had been avidly
\nfollowing over these past three weeks. The final results were not
\nso different from the those of the quick count that the National
\nDemocratic Institute and Institute of Research, Education and
\nInformation on Social and Economic Affairs (LP3ES) announced on
\nthe night of July 5. Understandably, therefore, the KPU's
\nannouncement came as something of an anticlimax for many people.<\/p>\n
Two of the five presidential candidates -- Amien Rais and
\nHamzah Haz, who respectively came fourth and last -- had already
\nthrown in the towel while the preliminary count was still in
\nprogress. Although Gen. (ret) Wiranto, who took third place in
\nthe final count, held on to his hopes for as long as he could, we
\nknow his party had already prepared itself for defeat. Golkar,
\nwhich won the largest number of seats in the April general
\nelection and had nominated Wiranto for the presidency, has been
\nengaged in talks this past week with a view to forging a
\ncoalition with one of the front-runners -- President Megawati
\nSoekarnoputri or Lt. Gen. (ret) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono -- ahead
\nof the September runoff. Wiranto's demand for a recount has
\nfallen on deaf ears, and rightly so as most people, including
\nmany in his own camp, believe that it would make little
\ndifference to the final outcome.<\/p>\n
Naturally, as in any election, the July 5 vote was not without
\nits share of hullabaloo and protests. There was the controversy
\nover the double perforation of ballot papers, which was not all
\nthat dissimilar to the problems in Florida during the 2000 U.S.
\npresidential election. Another problem emerged with Amien Rais'
\nand Wiranto's refusal to endorse the results in a number of
\nprovinces in protest at either the electoral or counting
\nprocesses employed. The Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu)
\nreceived numerous complaints and protests, and referred some of
\nthese to the Constitutional Court for resolution.<\/p>\n
These protests and complaints are important for the nation,
\nand most particularly for the KPU and Panwaslu, in allowing for
\nthe development of better election mechanisms, both for the
\nSeptember runoff and the 2009 elections. They are footnotes,
\nimportant ones at that, but they should not affect the outcome of
\nthe July election as announced by the KPU on Monday.<\/p>\n
The KPU said the 118 million out of 155 million registered
\nvoters took part in the election, giving a voter turnout of 76
\npercent, a healthy figure for a relatively young democracy like
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
The level of abstentionism is indeed high if we go by the 90
\npercent plus turnouts during the six elections held during the
\nSoeharto years. But let us remind ourselves that voting in this
\ncountry is not obligatory. We can now leave it up to the
\npolitical analysts to interpret the relatively high level of
\nabstentionism, but the turnout is still a respectable figure --
\ncertainly by the standards of any functioning democracy.<\/p>\n
All in all, Indonesia's first experiment with a direct
\npresidential election has been a remarkable success. This is
\nespecially so given that we only emerged from three decades of
\nauthoritarian rule six years ago. During those three decades,
\nelections were simply mechanisms to endorse the reelection of
\nSoeharto, and therefore far from democratic.<\/p>\n
Indonesia should rejoice at its achievements. We've got
\nourselves past second base with this first round presidential
\nelection. Now we can all look forward to an even better election
\nin the runoff in September as we head for home and elect the best
\nman or woman as president.<\/p>",
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