Voting with conscience

Voting with conscience

Nothing, it seems, can stop Jakarta's incumbent governor,
Sutiyoso, from winning the gubernatorial election next week.
Nothing that is, unless there are enough members in the Jakarta
Legislative Council who rediscover their conscience on time, and
cast their votes accordingly, which means nothing less than
voting in line with the wishes of the people they represent.

From the very beginning of the process, the Jakarta
gubernatorial election, which is scheduled to take place on
Wednesday, has been designed in such a way that gives the
incumbent a strong edge.

The electoral rules completely dismiss public participation in
the process except at the beginning; and having ensured that the
process is fully controlled by the council, the rules also
disregard public accountability of the council members. They can
ignore public opinion and get away with it, unpunished.

The absence of these two elements -- public participation and
public accountability -- makes this electoral process flawed from
the standpoint of democracy.

The city's political elite seemed to have stopped at nothing
to ensure that nothing will subvert their goal of getting
Sutiyoso reelected.

The election on Wednesday will be conducted by secret ballot,
which raises the possibility of some council members defying the
instructions of their party bosses and voting for other
candidates. But in order to be able to identify those who may
dissent during voting, the council met on Friday to decide
whether or not members would vote by writing down the names of
their chosen candidates, instead of the normal method of marking
their choice of governor and vice governor on the ballot papers.
Their rationale is simple: They can trace dissenters from their
handwriting, and punish them.

To date, no one among the city's political elite has ever
taken the trouble to give a satisfactory explanation to the
people of Jakarta concerning their obsession in getting Sutiyoso
reelected for a second five-year term in office. Such is their
contempt for public opinion.

In normal circumstances, Sutiyoso's poor track record for the
past five years should have disqualified him from even running
for office. One only needs to look at the sorry state of the city
from virtually every aspect -- security, physical infrastructure,
public services and many others -- to know that the city
administration has failed the residents. Sutiyoso should take the
lion's share of the blame.

What is most baffling, however, is the fact that the majority
of the support for Sutiyoso comes from the Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), which is chaired by President
Megawati Soekarnoputri. One hardly needs reminding that Sutiyoso
is a suspect in the bloody attack against Megawati's supporters
in 1996. Sutiyoso, as Jakarta Military commander back then, was
in charge of security, but the case never reached court.

Megawati's decision to instruct her PDI Perjuangan Jakarta
faction to support Sutiyoso amounts to a betrayal of her
supporters, especially those who gave their blood, sweat and
tears six years ago. Sutiyoso may only be a suspect, but that
should have been enough for PDI Perjuangan to exercise caution
and not support his reelection bid.

Perhaps there are some truths in the old saying that in
politics there are no permanent enemies, there are only permanent
interests. But by ensuring Sutiyoso's reelection, Megawati and
her PDI Perjuangan will be guilty of retaining one of the few
remnants of the repressive Soeharto regime. Most other
administrations and state institutions, both at the national and
local level, have already been taken over by people from the
reformist camp. Sutiyoso has not only managed to hold his ground,
but by the look of things, he will now retain his job for five
more years, courtesy of Megawati and her PDI Perjuangan.

Conscience seems to be in short supply among Indonesian
politicians today, be they at the national or local level. But
conscience is about the only thing now that could defeat
Sutiyoso. Let's hope that there will be enough council members
who rediscover theirs before Wednesday.