Direct election of community unit chief

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