For a better election

We may live in an imperfect world, but, as the Indonesian saying goes, we still can expect things to be better today than yesterday, and for tomorrow to be better than today. Such expectations of natural progression should also apply to how we view the 2004 elections.

Nobody is saying that next year's elections will be perfect. This, after all, will only be the second time that we, as a nation, are organizing free and fair elections since we emerged from more than three decades of undemocratic rule in 1998.

As a nation, we are perhaps still at the bottom of a long curve in learning democracy. We are still learning the ropes of nation-building and what it takes to create a truly democratic society. And we still have a long way to go.

But we can, and should, expect that 2004 will be better than the 1999 elections, and going by the Indonesian saying, that things should further improve in 2009.

This is the minimum expectation that this nation has in terms of the national political development. Whether or not this is really the case to a large extent depends on us all. It is with this thought in mind that we should look at the House's decision on Monday to endorse the bill on presidential election.

This latest piece of legislation joins two newly enacted laws -- one on the general elections and the other on political parties -- that lay the foundation for the nation's main political agenda next year: the general elections scheduled for April, and the presidential election before October 2004.

The newly endorsed bill on presidential election will still have to be signed by President Megawati Soekarnoputri before it becomes law, but given the extensive involvement of her own Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) in the deliberation of the bill, the signing is a mere formality.

Most, if not all, of the contentious points have been resolved by the factions in the House. The lengthy debate on these contentious points unfortunately have distracted attention from what is probably the most significant aspect of the bill.

It is therefore worth reminding the nation that this piece of new legislation is very significant because it will allow the people in this country, for the first time in Indonesia's modern history, to directly elect their president and vice president.

This, in itself, suggests that we are making significant progress, perhaps even a leap, in making ours a more democratic society. For the first time, the people will exercise greater control in how this nation elects its president and vice president, a task that in the past was entrusted to elected and appointed politicians in the People's Consultative Assembly.

Some of us may have reservations about certain aspects of the bill, but the House must still be commended for going forward, and not backtracking, on the direct presidential election plan.

Naturally, although they are no longer in full control of the outcome of next year's presidential election, the major factions in the House will still try to control the process. The incumbent parties will always try to ensure that the rules of the game favor their chances over other, smaller newcomers.

Thus, the debate over the last few weeks in the House focused more on whether a presidential candidate should be a university graduate, or whether or not a convicted criminal could run.

The first was an obvious reference to Megawati, who is a college dropout (and not merely a high school graduate). The second refers to Akbar Tandjung, the House Speaker and chairman of Golkar, the second largest faction after PDI Perjuangan, who is fighting off a corruption conviction in the Supreme Court.

These were the two points that delayed the bill's endorsement, and not coincidentally, affected the two largest factions in the House. When it was finally endorsed, it came as no surprise that the House came to a compromise: Both a high school graduate and a convicted criminal can run for president.

The House's compromise, and the lengthy debate and arm- twisting that went behind it, becomes a moot point. Since this will be a direct presidential election, the people will decide whether someone without a college diploma, or even someone with a criminal record, is worthy of the job.

There is no doubt that the outcome of next year's presidential election will largely be in the hands of the people. The political parties can only control the process.

History is on our side when it comes to organizing free and fair, and violence-free elections. Many pundits had predicted that the 1999 polls would turn ugly and violent because the nation was basically not ready for democracy and differences of opinions.

These doomsayers were proven convincingly wrong. The 1999 elections were even smoother than all the six farcical elections that were held under Soeharto's rule.

1999 was a watershed in Indonesian politics. It proved that we as a nation are ready for democracy and can live up to the values of democracy. On that note, we should all be confident that 2004 will definitely be better than 1999.