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.