Legislators represents parties: Cetro

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The upcoming general elections will do little to change the face of legislative bodies in the country, as lawmakers will remain the mouthpieces of their parties rather than representatives of the people, a study concluded on Monday.

The study, conducted by the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), revealed that most legislative candidates surveyed acknowledged they had been promoted by their parties.

Cetro also found bribery remained common in the selection of candidates, raising fears that the future legislators will take advantage of their positions to recover the money they spent getting elected.

"Based on the research, we shouldn't hope for too much from the new election system. Of course, the presence of new faces indicates that the country has the human resources to fill the positions, and that is a good sign.

"But since they were appointed by their parties, I doubt whether they will understand their main role is as people's representatives," said Hadar F. Gumay of Cetro.

The study covered 469 legislative candidates from several major parties. The respondents, who were randomly selected, represented six electoral districts: Jakarta, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, South Sulawesi and West Nusa Tenggara.

The respondents had to answer questions about which party had promoted them, the requirements set by each party for the selection of legislative candidates, the selection process for the candidates, the prospects for women candidates and the performance of the General Elections Commission (KPU) in regard with registering candidates.

According to the study, 77 percent of the 46 respondents in Jakarta said they had been appointed to run by their parties, while more than 80 percent of them had never been involved in practical politics.

In West Kalimantan, about 96 percent of the respondents said they were appointed by their parties, while in South Kalimantan the figure was 90 percent.

On the question of whether their parties had asked the candidates "to donate" some money, several respondents said they had to pay from Rp 1 million (US$119) to Rp 5 million. Several respondents said their parties asked them for hundreds of millions of rupiah.

The study found the selection of legislative candidates in Jakarta was less prone to money politics, with only 20 percent of the respondents surveyed in the capital saying their parties had demanded money for their nominations.

In South Kalimantan, about 98 percent of the respondents said their parties did not ask them for money.

"The respondents said they argued with their parties over various fees they had to pay, including administration fees and registration fees," Hadar said.

Bargaining between the parties and candidates also took place in determining the candidates' rankings on the list of the parties' legislative candidates, according to the study.

"Only about 4 percent of the respondents from each electoral districts admitted to having the amount of money they paid determine their candidacy number, but we see this as an effort to maintain the good image of their parties," Hadar said.