Councillors duck and dive
Councillors duck and dive
With the support of three major factions in Jakarta's City
Council, and thus the city's legislature firmly in pocket, it
appears at the moment that Governor Sutiyoso's chances of being
reelected for another five-year term are fairly well assured.
Besides, apart from those three large factions -- the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the Golkar Party
and the United Development Party (PPP) -- Sutiyoso also has the
support of the minor Justice and Unity Party (PKP).
As for Golkar and PPP, and the military-dominated PKP as well,
one can understand, though perhaps not applaud, their self-
interest in nominating Sutiyoso, who as governor of Indonesia's
capital city has shown little distinction in making Jakarta a
better place to live and work, especially for the poor.
The same apologetic statement could also be made for the PDI
Perjuangan, the party with the biggest representation in the
council and led by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, were it not
for the fact that it was the same Sutiyoso who in 1996, as
military commander of Jakarta, should at the very least be held
responsible for the vicious attack on the party's headquarters
that left dozens of the party members and supporters either dead,
injured or missing.
That event, of course, makes the PDI Perjuangan's support for
Sutiyoso's candidacy one of the worst ironies in Jakarta's
political history. But then, politics is politics, and to
paraphrase the 19th century French historian Alexis de
Tocqueville, distinguished for his comments on the benefits and
drawbacks of democracy: In politics many men are ruined by having
too good a memory. The party's support for Sutiyoso only seems to
validate Tocqueville's rather cynical remark.
However, while the legislators, chiefly those from PDI
Perjuangan along with chairperson Megawati, may be willing to
forgive and forget, many in Jakarta apparently are not. Tired of
airing their opposition to Sutiyoso's candidacy by issuing
declarations and organizing street protests without being heard,
this week some 300 representatives of the public took a more
mockingly humorous approach to air their rejection by presenting
11 ducks, neatly dressed up with ties around their necks, to each
of the 11 factions in the City Council.
To the face of the legislators, the demonstrators, including
becak pedicab drivers, street vendors and people evicted from
their shacks along riverbanks and railroad tracks, complained
that so far the lawmakers only "quack like ducks, making lofty
promises to the poor which they never fulfill". Numerous times
representatives of Jakarta's urban poor have tried to take their
complaints to the legislature but they were never heard, protest
leader Azas Tigor Nainggolan said.
One major point which the protesters made was that they did
not feel represented by the legislators -- their representatives
-- in the City Council. Of course the legislators, being elected
under Indonesia's proportional system of general elections,
represent the people only indirectly -- that is, through the
political parties they represent. As a natural consequence, it is
the immediate interest of those political parties that is first
and foremost in the minds of the legislators whenever they are
called upon to make policy decisions. This, plus the wide
prevalence of "money politics", naturally lead to disappointment
among the public which the legislators are supposed to
conscientiously represent.
For that reason, many Indonesians are looking forward
expectantly to the day when the people can directly elect their
own leaders and representatives, both on the national and on the
local levels. Until that day arrives, and until the practice of
"money politics" is wiped off the stage of Indonesian politics
and political morality is restored, Indonesians will have to put
up with policy decisions in which they have no direct role and
that are aimed more at serving the interests of the political
parties involved than those of the population at large.