Election law must promote accountability of legislators
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Political and legal experts urged legislators on Tuesday to adopt an electoral system that would promote accountability of the future members of the House of Representatives (DPR).
The experts emphasized that the proposed revision to Law No.3/1999 on elections should enable voters to elect trustworthy representatives.
"Despite its weaknesses, the district electoral system can promote the accountability of legislators," said Maswadi Rauf from the University of Indonesia (UI) during a hearing with members of the House special committee for election bill deliberation.
"If the people's representatives are not accountable, democracy will not flourish."
Maswadi, constitutional law experts Ismail Suny and Jimly Ashidiqqie, and historian Hermawan Sulistyo, spoke to legislators to give them input for their deliberations on the election bill.
Warning legislators of the consequences of an electoral system has both strength and weakness.
He suggested that the House special committee focus more on how to promote the accountability of legislators.
"Perhaps, a combination of a proportional system and an open- list of candidates would be the best solution," Jimly added.
He said Indonesian voters had never really elected their representatives in the legislative bodies.
In the past, voters were told only to elect symbols of political parties and the executive board of the parties had the authority to appoint members to become legislators.
Before addressing the special committee, Jimly criticized the legislators for their tendency to ignore the thoughts of academics.
He said that legislators often invited scholars for a hearing and discussion. But the hearings were just a formality and the ideas of scholars ignored.
Hermawan Sulistyo of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) meanwhile said that although the amended 1945 Constitution had adopted a bicameral parliamentary system, it would only become a pseudo-bicameral system.
Hermawan, better known as Kiki, added the new system would never become a strong bicameral system because the power of the House of Representatives (DPR) and the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) were not equal.
Under the draft election law, the new House will consist of 550 members while the Council will only be 120 members, four from each of 30 provinces. "This will create conflict in the future," Hermawan added.
Meanwhile at an earlier meeting between minor political parties and the special committee, leaders of minor parties urged legislators to delay the implementation of the electoral threshold until the election in 2009.
Should the ruling on electoral threshold be declared effective, the minor parties will have to reach a coalition, otherwise they will not be allowed to contest the election.
Chairman of the special committee Agustin Teras Narang said that in the next few days his team would hear advice from experts, political organizations and political parties to get inputs for the revision.
Teras promised to finish the deliberations in November.
The General Elections Commission (KPU) has often said that it requires time to prepare for a better election because the commission has to educate members of election committee in regional areas.
KPU also wanted legislators to quickly finish their deliberations because the commission had to select which political parties were eligible to contest the 2004 election.