MPR mulls direct election for regional governments

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) is debating the possibility of introducing a direct election system for heads of regional administrations, an MPR member said on Thursday.

"The direct election concept is very important, since the current mechanism is vulnerable to meddling by the central government, and money politics," said Manasse Malo, chairman of the Democracy and Love the Nation Faction in the MPR, after addressing a discussion named "The Election of the Head of the Regional Governments in the Autonomy Era."

Presently, the heads of regional administrations are elected by local councillors, and approved by the president for governors and by the home minister for regents, allowing contestants to bribe local councillors.

Manasse said that direct elections by the people would help to curb the pervasive money politics and intervention by influential figures in Jakarta.

Several parties have also pushed the MPR to adopt direct election mechanisms for both the president and the head of the regional governments through legislative amendments to the current constitution, he said.

Manasse, who is also chairman of the Regional Autonomy section in the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission II, said that the MPR has received much input from people who indicated that they were favorable to the idea.

The regional governments channeled these opinions through MPR's Ad Hoc Committee I, which oversees Constitutional amendments.

"Under the direct election system, the people's sovereignty would be ensured. For practical reasons, it would be very difficult to contest elected parties by bribing every citizen in any given region -- rather than paying off a handful of councillors," he said.

Money politics and intervention run rampant in the elections for heads of regional governments. A case in point is the election of the Kendari mayor in Southeast Sulawesi province.

In the Kendari mayoralty, local councillors reelected Masyhur Masie Abunawas as the mayor at the end of last year.

The Southeast Sulawesi governor who, under the current system, is in charge of endorsing the election results, intervened. He suspended the final decision solely on the grounds that Masie's performance was poor in his first term.

Local councillors insisted that, under the Regional Autonomy Law effective on Jan. 1, 2001, they all had the right to elect the mayor.

The governor was adamant in his stance, however, arguing that he had the authority to suspend the decision -- and that Masie was a civil servant under his authority.

The standoff left the matter in limbo.