Use Your Right to Vote

ANTARA FOTO/MAULANA SURYA

Residents carry a banner which reads Ojo Lali Nyoblos (Don’t forget to vote) on Jalan Jenderal Sudirman, Solo, Central Java, on Tuesday (26/6/2018). The action was held to invite people to execute their voting right in the simultaneous regional election on Wednesday (27/6).

The Reform Era has bestowed on the Indonesian people the right to elect their leaders. On Wednesday, more than 152 million voters will make use of that right.

The government has presented the country with a gift by declaring Wednesday a national holiday, even though elections are not held nationwide but only in 171 regions. The law states that the polling day is a holiday or a day off. The declaration of a national holiday has been criticized for further reducing productivity after what was already an unusually long Lebaran holiday. However, it has become a political decision.

There is no other way now; the holiday should be utilized with full responsibility for the election. This is the essence of the people’s sovereignty. The people have the sovereignty to elect their leaders – leaders who are trusted with improving their regions, leaders whose track records are clear and whose commitment to the nation\'s plurality is undoubted, leaders who stand by their words. It was impossible for us to find such conditions during the New Order period, when the election of regional leaders was in the hands of the regional legislative councils (DPRD).

The right to vote is a human right guaranteed by the Constitution. No administrative problem must prevent the people from electing their leaders, as long as they have the right to vote. Identity cards should also be accepted, as decided by the Constitutional Court.

We hope the regional elections will become a truly exciting celebration of democracy, not a democratic catastrophe that divides the nation. Different political choices in the regional elections should not bring division to the region or the nation. In every one of the regional elections, there will be those who are elected and others who are not. Whatever the outcome, when the people have spoken, we must all respect their voice.

We sincerely hope that the regional election will give birth to local leaders who are not merely power-hungry, but regional leaders who really want to serve their people and build their regions. The power vested in them is not for their own enjoyment; it is to be used for the benefit of all people, and not just the citizens who chose them.

Greatness is required of the victorious regional leadership candidates to embrace their competitors and the whole people. After the people have voted, the elected leaders must immediately take the initiative to re-invite the people to be united in building their region.

Our dream is that the regional elections with bring forth leaders who can reintroduce the soothing national narrative, a narrative capable of mending the partly torn weaving of national unity and of reinvigorating the nation and building its character. Even when the central elite lacks a big narrative about the future of the nation, it is not wrong to hope for such a narrative from regional leaders.