Putting names to faces

The General Elections Commission published the final list of candidates for the House of Representatives (DPR) on Thursday with little or no fanfare. Only a few members of the public bothered to raise objections to any names on the huge provisional list released quietly two days earlier -- the daunting task of sifting through 13,500 names included on the list deterred all but the most hard bitten of political observers. Not that it really matters, because after the June 7 election, only 462 of these faceless names will get the privilege of sitting in the DPR.

When the final list was published on Thursday, the number of candidates had been cut to just over 10,000. Some 3,000 names were removed following complaints, mainly from disgruntled party members and supporters who felt that they themselves, or their friends and relatives, had been unjustly excluded.

The majority of the electorate were disinterested in this part of the electoral process, and the opportunity to vet candidates ahead of voting day passed with little more than a whimper. This indifferent response was unfortunate, but it is questionable whether even an extended period for public comment would have stirred any greater concern.

Unless active in party politics, members of the general public would have a hard time finding familiar names among the 10,000 or so candidates who survived the final cut. At best, between 10 and 20 candidates could be described as household names, and candidates from all but the highest profile constituencies are anonymous to a man, or woman.

The public's apathy has exposed a major flaw in the use of proportional representation to fill the DPR. The system strengthens the hands of party executives in Jakarta at the expense of grassroots representation. Once elected, legislative candidates serve and represent their parties, not their designated constituencies. Former president Soeharto built up immense power through this same system, using his influence as both the country's president and Golkar's chief patron to rule Indonesia with an iron fist. Under this system, elected legislators have little power and voters have even less.

One year after Soeharto was forced from office, the political system and the electoral process remain unchanged. The only saving grace is that a few of the faces in politics have changed, holding out the possibility of a new government come November.

But the political system, flawed as it is, will remain the same as under the New Order. The fate of the nation will still lie with party elites in Jakarta. It is they who will determine how power is distributed. It is they who will select lists of legislative candidates. Rank and file party members will continue to be drones set to work courting the "floating masses" to ensure election victories.

Greater democracy should mean greater decentralization, at all levels. The existing government, through the new law on regional administration, is currently one step ahead of the political parties in granting greater autonomy to outlying regions. It is surely ironic that while the government moves slowly towards decentralization, our country's political parties are working to shore up the concentration of power at the center. Not that party leaders are entirely to blame for this trend -- the new law on political parties requires all party headquarters to be located in Jakarta.

Last year, the country's leaders toyed briefly with the idea of introducing a district electoral system. Under the system, votes would have been cast directly for local candidates, removing the anonymity currently granted to nominees through the practice of voting for a party. For ill-qualified candidates appointed through cozy links to party leaders, the prospect of coming face to face with the electorate must have been less than appealing. Equally, party leaders must not have relished the prospect of having to justify the selection of candidates in regions they had no legitimate claim to represent. In the end, personal interests were allowed to overcome the national interest and the idea was duly abandoned.

However, this week's apathetic response to the chance to vet candidates has shown that the political needs of the public cannot be served remotely from anonymous party headquarters in Jakarta. Democracy needs a familiar face and we hope the next elected government will realize this and have the courage to do what is best for the nation, not simply what is best for its own interests.