Power-hungry parties loath to share spoils: Analysts

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Can President Megawati Soekarnoputri, and the country's governors, regents and legislators really claim to represent the people?

This question is being raised increasingly amid general public loss of confidence in both the legislative and executive organs of government at both the central and local levels.

With the introduction of direct presidential and legislative elections, an elected president will wield more power in the sense that he or she will not be able to be dismissed as easily as former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid in July 2001. Legislators also enjoy more legitimacy now as they are elected directly by their constituents.

The question of who really should hold the people's mandate has colored the deliberations in the House of Representatives on amendments to Law No. 22/1999 on local government and Law No. 25/1999 on fiscal balance between the central and local governments.

Lawmakers insist that the political parties, through their factions in the country's legislatures, should keep their key role in the selection of local chief executives. The government is opposed to this, saying independent candidates deserve an equal chance to contest gubernatorial, regental and mayoral elections.

Political analysts Ikrar Nusa Bhakti and Syamsuddin Haris of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) branded the House's stance as mere posturing.

"What is of greatest importance is that independent candidates need to win the support of a certain percentage of eligible voters," Ikrar told a discussion here on Monday.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and the Golkar Party factions, which together hold a clear majority in the 500-strong House, have pushed for the deliberation of the two House-sponsored bills, despite calls from the members of the recently elected Regional Representatives Council (DPD) to delay the debate until they take office on Oct. 1.

The Law on the composition of the People's Consultative Assembly, House of Representatives, and provincial, regental and municipal legislatures recommends direct elections for local chief executives following the introduction of direct presidential elections.

The President has issued a decree postponing all elections for local government chief executives that should have taken place this year until after the two bills have been endorsed.

Golkar legislator Ferry Mursyidan Baldan defended his faction's stance, saying that allowing independent candidates to run for the top posts in local governments would only further increase vote buying.

"Non-partisan candidates who might want to contest these elections would need to have a lot of money, and this could lead to the possibility of their using their money to buy votes," he said.

Vote buying was frequently reported during recent elections of local government bosses, although only a few cases have been proven in court.

PDI-P lawmaker Firman Jaya Daely agreed.

"Activists from non-governmental and other civil society organizations are allowed to nominate candidates for local government chief executive elections, but the nominations should be made via the political parties," he said.

Ikrar said the growing calls for the local elections commissions (KPUD) to allow independent candidates to run were triggered by public distrust in the country's local administrations and legislatures.

"The demonstrations that have been held demanding that newly sworn-in councillors sign political contracts indicate that the public no longer trust their local legislatures in the wake of many corruption cases involving councillors," he said.

He suggested that independent candidates be allowed to run in the next presidential election to counter the parties' monopoly over power.

Syamsuddin questioned the ongoing revision of the local autonomy laws, saying they had merely focused on the direct election of local chief executives, even though local autonomy was much broader than this.

"It would be better for the House to propose separate legislation on the election of local government chief executives," he said.