Vote and be counted

Vote and be counted

It's decision time. Today is the final round of the
presidential election. For the first time since we declared
independence in 1945, the people of this country have the
opportunity to decide directly who will lead us for the next five
years.

If we believe the fate of the country depends to a large
extent on its leaders, then this is an unprecedented opportunity
for us to determine our own destiny, or at the very least, the
direction in which the country will head. Our participation in
the election, and therefore our vote, has never been more
important.

This is a big step for Indonesia, which for the last six years
has been making a conscious effort to build the nation upon more
democratic principles after enduring over three decades of
tyrannical rule. It has certainly been a hard struggle, but there
has been a national consensus that direct presidential elections
will ensure real sovereignty lies fully in the hands of the
people, as enshrined in the 1945 Constitution.

Not that there is anything wrong with indirect elections,
which are found in many other democracies, including the United
States. But Indonesia's own experience with entrusting the
presidential election to the People's Consultative Assembly has
been bitter. Sukarno and Soeharto, our first two presidents,
circumvented the system and virtually controlled the Assembly,
and thus its decisions, rather than the other way around.

A direct election would hopefully ensure a closer emotional
connection between the people and the elected president. The
president, in turn, would feel, or certainly should feel, that
she or he is accountable to the people, an element that was
definitely missing during the Sukarno and Soeharto years.

This direct system also puts the president more or less on
equal footing with the legislative bodies, which have been given
immense power following a series of constitutional amendments
these last six years. After the nation's failure to secure
credible leaders through indirect elections, the direct method of
electing our president and vice president is worth experimenting
with.

Granted, a direct election does not guarantee the leaders
Indonesia desperately needs will be elected, any more than an
indirect election does. This is true at least for this particular
election, which pits the incumbent President Megawati
Soekarnoputri against her former security czar, Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono. For many people, this is not much of a choice.

Hard as they have tried to separate themselves, there is not
all that much of a difference between the two candidates. Both
were raised politically during the Soeharto years: Megawati
served in the House of Representatives in the 1980s and 1990s,
and Susilo served in various capacities in Soeharto's Army. In
addition, Susilo was one of Megawati's lieutenants until earlier
this year.

While one candidate claims to represent continuity and the
other tries to project change, Megawati and Susilo could equally
make either of these claims. But these are the two candidates
that passed through the election system, which is still heavily
controlled by the political parties. While voters may have the
last say, the major political parties control the nomination
process. So, today we are stuck with these two candidates, and
one of them is going to be president for the next five years.

Even with its shortcomings, however, this is still an election
worth participating in, because every single vote matters. In the
first round of the presidential election in July, in which five
candidates ran, those people who voted for the eventual losers
may have felt that their votes were wasted. Today, with only two
candidates running, no vote will be squandered. A vote for one
candidate can equally be seen as a vote against the other
candidate.

If you dislike both candidates, you can still vote against the
candidate you like the least, or dislike the most. You do not
need to feel responsibility for the eventual winner: you did not
vote for her or him, but rather you voted against the other
candidate.

If for some reason you decide not to vote, which is a right
guaranteed by the law, your voice will not matter at all and you
will not make any difference in the eventual outcome.

Ultimately, it is your decision to vote or not to vote, and to
vote for which candidate. In spite of all the public endorsements
of the candidates, some with tinges of intimidation, this is a
secret ballot that guarantees that you can, and should, vote
according to your conscience. So vote and be counted.