MPR should adopt closed voting<\/p>\n
From Media Indonesia<\/p>\n
Like the last two plenary sessions of the House of
\nRepresentatives, which resulted in the first and second
\nmemorandum of censure against the President, the next special
\nsession of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), scheduled
\nfor Aug. 1, 2001, would probably adopt the same mechanism of
\nvoting i.e. open voting in making its decision. At that time the
\nHouse, in its deliberations on whether to accept the President's
\naccountability report, resorted to open voting because lobbying
\nefforts and debates to reach a unanimous agreement failed.<\/p>\n
An open voting system is in fact an effective way for large
\nHouse factions to pin point and control a legislator who has a
\ndifferent opinion from that of his own faction. We have then
\nobserved how not a single legislator cast a vote which was
\nagainst his faction's aspiration. In a way, legislators had been
\npsychologically terrorized and coerced to vote for a decision in
\nline with their respective faction's policy.<\/p>\n
However, the open voting mechanism could be harmful to a
\nlegislator, if he or she had to vote for a decision that would
\nlead to the ousting of President Abdurrahman Wahid from his
\npresidential post by rejecting his accountability report. The
\nlegislator concerned could become a target of attack by angry
\nsupporters of the President. So a better choice would be a closed
\nvoting system. The closed voting system is not only safe for the
\nvoters, but also democratic in nature where honesty and
\nconscientiousness are more likely to be guaranteed.<\/p>\n
It is true that a closed voting is vulnerable to money
\npolitics. But again it all depends on the conscience and
\nmentality of the individual legislator.<\/p>\n
SAMSU<\/p>\n
Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/mpr-should-adopt-closed-voting-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }