Democracy on trial in Indonesia after decision to scrap some local elections
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 05 October, 2014, 4:10am
UPDATED : Sunday, 05 October, 2014, 4:10am
SCMP Editorial
Indonesian president-elect Joko Widodo rose to power through the local election system.
In fully fledged democracies, local government is where many future leaders at regional and national levels cut their political teeth. It connects them at grass-roots level with the day-to-day concerns and aspirations of ordinary people and, hopefully, endows them with some empathy and a touch of humility if they ever get elected to high office of state, with all its taxpayer-funded perks and privileges.
An example is Indonesian president-elect Joko Widodo, a former furniture exporter who rose to power through the local election system, first as mayor of Surakarta and then governor of the capital, Jakarta, where his common touch and transparent administration enhanced the popularity of his education, health care and transport policies.
Unfortunately, he may be the last in that office, because the outgoing national legislature has voted to scrap the decade-old direct election of local officials - mayors, provincial governors and district heads across the vast archipelago of about 250 million people - and instead hand power to local parliaments to pick them. This effectively strengthens the power of the elite to choose one of their own and diminishes the prospect of another Widodo - or Jokowi as he is known - rising to the top on popular merit. It is a return to the system used during the time of the dictator Suharto, deposed in 1998.
Widodo has rightly accused his opponents of stealing "people's political rights" in a vote that marks an early defeat for him and a setback for his ambitious reform agenda, which needs parliamentary support.
It was seen as revenge by political opponents of Widodo, who backed his defeated rival for the presidency, ex-general Prabowo Subianto, and have a majority in parliament.
Outgoing president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whose party defied his request to oppose the bill by walking out during the vote, said he planned to challenge the result in the Constitutional Court. For the sake of a fair trial for democracy after 31 years of Suharto's corrupt dictatorship, we hope he succeeds.
