Electoral plan draws mixed reactions
JAKARTA (JP): Local and foreign experts have given mixed reactions to the proposed electoral system -- a combination of the current proportional representation system and a district one.
Dwight Y. King, associate professor of political science at Northern Illinois University in the United States, hailed the proposed system as promising, saying: "It looks to me like the best world system and I'm very interested in thinking about its implications".
"I mean there is no right way to run a fair general election because it depends on the values we want to maximize. So, it's a nice balance between representativeness and accountability," he said on the first day of an international conference on Structural Reforms for Democratization in Indonesia, here yesterday.
Daniel S. Lev, a professor of political science at the University of Washington in Seattle, said that a fair general election depended not on what system was applied but how it was run.
"My point is that the key problem isn't about the system but the national commitment to conduct a fair and democratic election," he said.
Afan Gaffar of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta and Ramlan Surbakti of Airlangga University in Surabaya defended the mixed electoral system. They both said it was designed to establish a more representative legislature with a high degree of accountability and a more stable government.
Gaffar said the nation should learn from the past when the New Order regime manipulated the electoral laws and the proportional representation system "to oppress minority political parties" and to create a ruling party which always gained an absolute majority.
Ramlan said the mixed system was aimed at maximizing advantages in the district system by upholding democracy in Indonesia and eliminate the disadvantages by combining it with the proportional system.
Gaffar and Ramlan are members of the six-member team appointed by the government to draft the new laws on political parties, general elections and the role of the People's Consultative Assembly and House of Representatives.
The three draft laws are currently at the State Secretariat en route to the House for deliberation.
Andrew Reynolds, assistant professor of international studies at Notre Dame University in the United States, disagreed with the application of the district system.
He said that Indonesia was very large and a majority of its population was concentrated in Java while regions outside Java had yet to posses quality human resources to implement this type of system.
"Besides, exclusive, sectarian groups based on ethnicity and religion could rise from the districts," he said.
Miriam Budiardjo of the University of Indonesia concurred. She said there would not be enough time to publicize the new system and added the numerous political parties would not be ready to implement it.
"In my opinion it would be wise not to introduce the proposed system at this point in time. It will need time to publicize."
Miriam said it would also be very difficult to divide the country into districts fairly because they would most likely be determined based on administrative second tier (regency) government lines, which do not always adequately reflect a division of voters. (rms)