Indonesia decides today

Indonesia decides today
The Jakarta Post ( Editorial Excerpt) | Thu, 04/09/2009 11:44 AM | Opinion
It’s decision time for Indonesia. Millions of Indonesians across the archipelago today will go to polling stations to elect their representatives at the national and local legislatures. Their decision will determine the fate of the nation for the next five years and beyond. In July, we will go back to the polling stations to vote for a president and vice president.
Putting aside the figures – over 171 million registered voters, about 500,000 polling stations, 44 political parties and over one million candidates vying for more than 50,000 seats – this vote is significant for Indonesia in many respects.
This will be the third truly free and fair election Indonesia has held since it got rid of dictator Soeharto in 1998 and ushered in a new era of democracy. The consensus nationwide since then is that Indonesia should build this nation – in spite of its diversity in race, ethnicity, culture, language and religion – on the basis of democracy.
For 30 years Soeharto tried ruling the country the authoritarian way but in the end the regime became so cor-rupt that all the gains made in economic development were virtually wiped out during the 1997/98 Asian economic crisis.
With the first two elections under its belt, Indonesia has earned the accolade as the third largest democracy in the world after India and the United States.
Among the predominantly Muslim countries, Indonesia is the largest democracy in the world, disproving the widely held belief that Islam and democracy just don’t get along.
Admittedly, we do not yet have a perfect democracy, but as long as each election is an improvement over the previous one, we should be content. After all, we are still essentially experimenting with our democracy.
So what else is new with this year’s parliamentary election, one might ask.
This is the first time voters have had a greater say on who will sit in the legislatures – the House of Representatives and the Regional Representatives Council – at the national level and the provincial and regental legislative councils. Courtesy of the Constitutional Court, the candidates with the most votes will take the seats. The court struck out at a clause in the election law that stated the seat should go to candidate at the top of the winning party’s list.

This decision is consistent with the trend of organizing direct elections for president and vice president, provincial governors, regency chiefs and city mayors, which was introduced in 2004.
From this year, voters have the power to directly elect their representatives in the legislatures.
This weakens the hands of political parties but brings together elected politicians and their constituents.
Now, they are more accountable and must ensure their loyalty first and foremost is with the people, and not with their party.
There have been rumors predicting massive protests following the election, especially with problems over the voters’ list, but if we go by the elections in 1999 and 2004, which were also chaotic, things have a way of resolving themselves in Indonesia.
We expect this year will be no different, because at the end of the day, everyone knows that the cost of failure would be horrendous, not just financially, but also in terms of political stability.
Let’s preserve the festive mood, cast our ballots today and accept the outcome, regardless of whether it meets our own expectations.
May democracy march on in this country.