Democracy takes a back seat in Jambi

Jon Afrizal, The Jakarta Post, Jambi

The champions of democracy in Jambi province are no longer consistent in upholding their principles, with many of them getting involved in campaigning for candidates contesting the upcoming gubernatorial elections, a leading think tank has claimed.

"There has been a decline in democratic ethics in Jambi," director of the Jambi Social Reform Study Center Kasmadi Kasyim told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

He was referring to local political analysts and scholars who have joined the campaign teams of gubernatorial candidates.

Kasmadi said those who used to fight for democracy have jumped onto the bandwagon of mainstream politics, leaving no-one to objectively monitor the election process.

"Such a function is urgently needed to prevent the election process from sacrificing the interests of the general public," he said.

The analysts, he added, were not now explaining to the public the vision and policies of the respective candidates, thus discouraging people from voting based on narrow sectarian affiliations.

"Democracy suggests a fair competition, and should offer as many choices as possible to the public," he said.

Coordinator of the Prosperous Justice Party's (PKS) campaign team, Nurdin, said the party was also concerned about the lack of democratic values in the election campaign.

PKS is ineligible to pick its own gubernatorial candidate because it only secured three seats in the provincial legislature, far from the electoral threshold of seven seats.

"However, the PKS has to endorse a candidate who fits with our criteria, even though he or she may not share our principles," said Nurdin.

Otto Hardiman from the Indonesian Center for Democracy and Human Rights (Demos) said the involvement of advocates of democracy in regional elections was also occurring at the regency level as well.

"It has become a trend that the champions of democracy are becoming increasingly involved in election campaigns in many regions," he said.

He said that pro-democracy figures could make a contribution to democracy if they dared to promote alternative candidates and maintain pressure on winning candidates to allocate posts in their administrations the to parties that supported them.