Politicians blamed for poor voter turnout

Politicians blamed for poor voter turnout

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The disappointment of Jakarta residents with the performance of
the country's politicians is the main reason why many people were
unenthusiastic about the April 5 legislative elections, say
analysts.

Syamsuddin Haris, a political analyst from the Indonesian
Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said on Wednesday that Jakarta
people were revolted by the unscrupulous attitudes displayed by
politicians.

"The disappointment of Jakarta people with the politicians is
the main reason for the low turnout in the elections. Media
reports (on the conduct of politicians) have played an important
role in molding people's attitudes," Syamsuddin told The Jakarta
Post.

According to the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU
Jakarta), there were 6,478,005 eligible voters in the city, but
only 4,542,726 of them bothered to vote. In other words, nearly
two million people, or one third of the eligible voters, did not
exercise their right to vote.

In 1999, less than 10 percent of the voters in the city failed
to cast their votes.

Syamsuddin said that as the most well-informed people in the
country, Jakarta residents were more independent about deciding
whether or not to use their right to vote.

He said he was not surprised by the low level of participation
by Jakarta people in the elections as this had been indicated by
a lackluster election campaign.

A similar comment came from Rachmad Prakoso of the Institute
for Policy and Community Development Studies (IPCOS), who said
that Jakarta residents, particularly those with good educations,
understood that they had the right to vote or not to vote as they
saw fit.

"They are more independent in showing their political
attitudes," he told the Post, adding that the decrease in the
number of voters was nothing out of the ordinary, particularly in
a big city like Jakarta.

The situation would be different if such a decrease occurred
in a rural area where the population mostly still thought that
voting was obligatory, he added.

He mentioned three groups of Jakarta residents who had not
voted. First, those who really did not want to vote; second,
those who had not been registered as voters, and third, migrants
who cast their votes in their hometowns.

Meanwhile, Imam B. Prasodjo, a sociologist from the University
of Indonesia (UI), said there were two main groups of Jakarta
residents who did not vote even though they had the opportunity
to do so.

First, there were those who were thoroughly frustrated by the
situation and who no longer believed in the promises of
politicians. Imam said the number of such people was significant.

And second, those who did not see the significance of the
legislative institutions, particularly the House of
Representatives and the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR),
which were set to lose their roles in electing the president and
the vice president.

"I believe the level of public participation will be different
during the upcoming presidential election," he added.

Both Syamsuddin and Imam, however, said that the low voter
turnout in the legislative elections should not be viewed as a
negative phenomenon as it actually served to indicate growing
political maturity on the part of the electorate.

Imam said that during the New Order era, around 99 percent of
eligible voters took part in elections -- not because they wanted
to vote but rather because they were forced to do so.