Direct election of community unit chief

On Sunday June 2, 2002, residents belonging to community unit No. 02, Ulujami subdistrict, South Jakarta, participated in a direct, general, free and confidential election of their community unit chief. The winner was Syahroni, who collected more votes than the other four candidates.

Prior to this election, the candidates were required to describe their vision and mission to the residents. On election day, the residents made their choice by pricking into the picture of the candidate of their own preference.

A similar democratic process also took place when the residents elected members of the sub-district council, also in a similar manner. While there were some shortcomings here and there, these two occasions can be considered to have run well.

As the residents actively participated in the election process from the preparation stages to the election proper, they had a sense of responsibility to produce only the best.

These two occasions show that at the lowest level, democracy can run well without any briefing. The people can organize themselves because they know what they need and also how to run things. Therefore, even if this is expanded to a higher level, to involve, for example, the election of a subdistrict head, a district head, a mayor, a governor or even the president, high- ranking government officials should not fear this kind of election. It is true, of course, more time will be needed to popularize the method to ensure that there will be no cultural misunderstanding.

-- Warta Kota, Jakarta