Indonesia Legislative General Election (Part 1)

Indonesia has gone through election on 9^th April 2009, and the counting process is still going on now. I follow the news and updates from some commercial TV channels at Indonesia, such as Metro TV and TV One, and notice some vital points of this period’s election. Many conclude that it’s the messiest election on history since the era of reformation. Well, I didn’t note how last elections were going on, since I was still too young at that time. But based on what I get from TV, since the long campaign period until now, that sounds just right. The voting and calculation process, together with what happen after that election, might be the top of all the chaos. It’s ironic, a proof of all the hard work of government, KPU (Komisi Pemilihan Umum / Commission of General Election), all involved parties, and we as citizens.

We have all paid a lot for this democracy, something we strived for 11 years ago. For all the casualties and big loss our country and individuals faced during the struggle, which the pain might never leave from many people’s heart, now we are not yet involved nor enjoy thoroughly in the party. Democracy is very expensive. Parties and government spend trillions of money for conducting all the area elections during the years, and now this once-in-five-year party. At the end, we have to answer frankly, are we already getting the best we deserve?

Some vital and embarrassing facts from this legislative election are :

1. Failures and “stupidity” during the campaign process. Many campaign banners used sentences and objects that didn’t reflect an intellectual campaign. There were even many misspelled and inappropriate use of English, and some focused on objects that didn’t fit the context. During the campaign, many parties broke or suspected to break the rules stated by KPU such as campaign area and money politic. Parties, as representative of our country’s next leaders, even broke the “simple and well-known” traffic rules during their road campaigns by, for instance, letting they supporters not putting helmets on motorcycle, making chaos on the street, and disturbing public activities. Some party made unsupportive statements about their “rivals”. Are these unethical behaviors are what we want to see from our next leaders?
2. Delivery of election logistic. Until the last days, some provinces in Indonesia still didn’t get their logistic. How they could prepare well if until last days they were still worrying about when the logistic would arrive? Indonesia is no doubt a big country, but KPU is a big and authorized body in the process, the working period is more than enough to make good planning and execution.

(to be continued to next post, Indonesia Legislative General Election (Part 2))

Tags: election, general election, Indonesia election, legislative election