Is it what’s called Democracy??

Every five year Indonesia holds a general election or commonly said as pesta demokrasi or democracy celebration. All parties are busy with all preparation towards the election. There are almost 40 parties which compete one another, some are old parties from the old & new order and some are new parties which were just established a year or two years ago. Basically there are two general elections, one is legislative election and the other one is presidential election.
The old parties like Golkar, PPP & PDIP have certainly more experiences than new parties, especially Golkar which was the ruling party in the era of the new order, the era which had brought Indonesia to not only dictatorship but also as the most corrupt country in the world which is very pathetic. Indonesia citizens especially those who were members of KOPRI were “forced” to vote for the ruling party. Golkar always defeated the other two parties with majority seats in parliament. It really didn’t portray democracy at all, one would rather keep silent than speak up and end up in jail. And I would say that there was no use to even hold the general election if one could not vote as he/she wished.

There are crucial changes which had occurred after the reform took place in 1998, now people are more open to speak up, they’re no longer worried of being caught or put in jail by the government. The myth of being silenced has been broken. And the new political system took in place; people are urged to be more active in the world of politics. New parties and new political figures emerged, some just emerged from nowhere, and suddenly there were many heroes who wanted to be involved in politics and to determine the new Indonesia for years ahead. It sounds like a good thing but not all of them were capable and competent enough, they should have asked themselves why they wanted to play the role, they should have done it because they knew they were capable and do it for the sake of the people and nation.

The domination of Golkar doesn’t seem to continue, Golkar won in the legislative election in 2004, but now in 2009 legislative election, it’s likely to be only number 3 after PDIP and Democratic Party. And among all parties only about 10 parties have reached parliamentary threshold, people should now be aware that there are too many parties involved and it’s just too confusing to most people, why not make major coalitions among those small parties which have the same vision and platform and do more educating activities toward the real democracy and not to mention the money used for the campaign and the cost for selecting all legislators. We should be sad seeing hundreds or thousands of people wanting to be caleg or legislators and willing to spend hundreds of millions or even sold their houses and assets so that they could use it for campaign, well I am not saying that one must not want to be a legislator but doing it for the wrong reasons and is only tempted to have a high earning is something all should avoid.

Unlike developed countries like in USA people are already mature enough in doing politics but here we still see many people are mobilized to gather in mass campaigns and the sad thing is they gather not because they understand about what is all about or want to listen to the vision of the party but because they hope for small money promised by a party or caleg if not for the small money then they gather because they know there will be dangdut music show. It’s really not educating at all but that’s the reality which still happens in Indonesia.

In real democracy countries, people vote with reasons, people vote because they want to, and people use his/her right without intimidation and force, the system is already well organized but still people can choose not to use his/her right without a threat. The more people participating in the election indicates the success of the election, of course all the elements play its role in making it happen peacefully, the election commission works hand in hand with the government and other related bodies such as election supervisory agency and other private agencies which help monitor the smooth process of the election, hopefully the coming presidential election will be better. Let’s hope for better Indonesia, let’s hope for better world.

-ARRASY- 10 April 2009