Public ignorant about their representatives
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Ask anyone about who is his or her representative in the House of Representatives (DPR) and you will likely get a blank stare.
In spite of the massive turnout in the last general election in 1999, the majority of the people still cannot name their representatives in the national legislature, according to a newly published survey by Taylor Nelson Sofres Indonesia.
Most cannot even name one single representative from any constituency.
In the nationwide survey conducted in April, only 4 percent of the 3,580 polled were able to name their representative; another nine percent could name a representative but not necessarily the constituency he/she comes from.
A staggering 86 percent could not name even one single legislator.
Have they never heard of Akbar Tandjung, the speaker of the House whose name has been in the news these past six months for allegations of corruption and abuse of power?
Yet, that's the reality of today's political situation in Indonesia, whereby the people are largely alienated from the national political processes, except during election years.
This is the downside of the proportional representative electoral system, in which people vote for the political parties, instead of for the politicians who are running for office. As a result, most people do not know, or even care, who is eventually appointed to represent them in the legislature.
This alienation is reaffirmed by the fact that the majority of the people polled said they had never been contacted by the politicians, either in the national (DPR) or local legislatures (DPRD), whom they elected to represent them.
Even those who had been in contact said the initiative had come from them rather than from the politician. Nine percent of those polled said they had contacted their representatives in either the local or national legislatures, and only 4 percent said they had been contacted by the representatives.
In contrast, 67 percent said they had never contacted their representatives and 87 percent said they had never been contacted.
Hopes that the 2004 election would bring the constituents and the elected politicians closer have been dashed because the proportional representative system will continue to be used.
The only major change in the next election system is in the way the nation elects its president, which will be direct, instead of through the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).
Taylor Nelson Sofres conducted the survey in cooperation with the International Foundation for Election System (IFES) Indonesia. The poll was commissioned by the House of Representatives and the People's Consultative Assembly to test public opinion about the current political situation.
The 3,580 respondents were randomly picked from urban (36 percent) and rural (64 percent) areas in all 30 provinces, with 49 percent of respondents men and 51 percent women.
People's connection with the political parties is better than is the case with the legislators. But only just.
Only 39 percent of those polled were able to name more than five political parties, according to the survey.
The majority, or 37 percent, said that political parties were more concerned about their own interests, as against 27 percent who believed that the parties were genuinely concerned about public participation in the political process.
On which parties have been more successful in representing the people's aspirations, the survey did not depart far from the 1999 general election results in terms of ranks, although the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) appeared to have scored better than in their election performance.
According to the survey, 43 percent of the respondents said PDI Perjuangan, which is chaired by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, succeeded in channeling the people's aspirations. Golkar came second with 18 percent, followed by the Nation Awakening Party (14 percent), the United Development Party or PPP (12 percent), and the National Mandate Party or PAN (8 percent).