Dynamics of 12th Legislative Election

In the 73 years since Indonesian independence, the country has held the legislative election 11 times.

The inaugural legislative elections were held in 1955 – twice, to elect members of the House of Representatives (DPR) and members of the Constituent Assembly. Following this, an election was held in 1971, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 1999 and in 2004 (electing members of the DPR, provincial DPRDs and regency/municipal DPRDs on April 5, the first round of the presidential election on July 5, and the second round on Sept. 20), in 2009 (the legislative election on April 9, the presidential election on July 8), and most recently in 2014 (the legislative election on April 9, the presidential election on July 9).

Since 2005, direct regional elections have been held at the provincial and regency/municipal levels to elect governors, regents and mayors. All elections grow in meaning as democracy and politics advances in our country, and it is appropriate that Indonesia is called the third largest democracy in the world after India and the US.

The upcoming election on April 17, 2019, is the 12th election, when the people will elect their president/vice president and their representatives to the DPR, the Regional Representative Council (DPD), provincial DPRDs and regency/municipal DPRDs simultaneously. There are 185,732,093 eligible voters registered to exercise their right to vote, who will be casting their ballots at 805,075 polling stations (TPS) across 74,958 villages and 8,430 subdistricts to elect their president/vice president, 575 DPR members, 132 DPD members, 2,207 provincial DPRD members, and 17,610 regency/municipal DPRD members.

The 2019 election involves two presidential pairs, 7,968 legislative candidates (4,774 men and 3,194 women) and 237,138 DPRD candidates across all administrative levels from 16 national political parties and 4 regional parties in Aceh.

With 245,106 candidates on the campaign trail in various locales, it is a festive event for celebrating democracy and political education towards political maturity and strengthening national unity – if the campaigns contain positive messages on our ideals to shape the country, offer programs, conceptualizes the country’s future direction, present ideas and plans on developing regional economic potentials, and offer alternative solutions to our country’s future challenges.

On the other hand, these campaigns conducted on such a broad and widespread scale could reduce national unity or divide the nation and lead our civilization to decline if they are full of hoaxes, lies, verbal abuse, slander and hate speech.

Political dynamics and pragmatism

The presidential election (pilpres) and legislative election (pileg) that will be held simultaneously are new events that derived from the Constitutional Court decision prior to the 2014 election. This decision was the fruit of interpreting the constitution with the intent to strengthening the presidential system, and

has been deemed effective in minimizing the space for political parties to conduct pragmatic political transactions against the president. Thus far, we have seen many political parties enthusiastically to jumping up in favor of the electoral victor. In fact, many parties in every cabinet are reluctant to become the opposition, even if they had supported losing candidates before.

Funnily enough, there is a government party who is more vocal than the opposition, even to the extent of launching personal attacks against the president. Strong political pragmatism that is supported by an appropriate political system opens opportunities for maneuvers that ignore ethics and undermine democracy because of the absence of a strong opposition.

The system of simultaneously holding presidential and legislative election presents different political dynamics from holding these elections separately. A phenomenon has emerged in which legislative candidates from parties that support presidential candidate A, are not vulgar in their manner of support in areas where the majority prefers candidate B. Party figures have even emerged that have boldly chosen a different candidate from their party. A party’s central executive board has even given autonomy to its regional members to declare support for candidates that differ from the party line.

An exception is seen in that a number of parties appear to be prioritizing their campaigns for the legislative election rather than the presidential election. Volunteers are more spontaneous and active in the presidential campaigns, which is a positive indication of progress in democratic awareness.

Another thing that distinguishes the 2019 legislative election from the last one is the use of the Sainte Lague vote-to-seat conversion method to replace the Hare quota method. The new system is more proportional in determining the seats awarded. Using the Hare quota method, a party that gains a third of all votes divided by seats (BPP) and the party that earns 0.9 BPP can both be awarded a single seat in certain electoral districts.

The Sainte Lague system tends to favor large parties, so a party that gained more seats under the Hare quota’s largest remainder system will not meet the 4 percent electoral threshold.

Only a few republics in the world employing the presidential system hold their legislative and presidential elections together, such as Turkey, which has just switched from a semi-presidential system to a presidential system through a tough referendum.

After the 12th election is over, this pattern needs to be evaluated as to whether it is good for us to continue to use it. Building a nation-state is a long-term, systemic and endless process, and it is the responsibility of each generation to hand over a state that is in better condition and has a better system to the next generation.

Political parties have become increasingly strategic institutions in our country. Political parties are tasked not only with channeling the people\'s aspirations, provide political education, give birth to new ideas for advancing the nation, state and all societal circles, articulate the people’s ideas and aspirations for realizing through state administration, and disseminate state policies. They are also entrusted with the primary and noble task of finding the country’s best sons and daughters to take up public leadership positions from heads of state to cabinet ministers, to state legislators and regional heads, and to regional legislators.

It the duty of the parties to submit clean figures who possess high integrity, morals and ethics; a conscience that supports the interests of the people, nation and state and is not oriented to short-term political gains, interest groups and alliances; figures who are competent and visionary. The most important task of voters is to choose the best among them. If that happens, then those holding political seats are the best of the good, the primus inter pares. They will improve the repute and achievements of all representative institutions (the DPR, DPD, provincial DPRDs and regency/municipal DPRDs), which have continued to decline due a variety of cases, and towards the accelerated advancement of Indonesia.

However, if political parties nominate candidates for their political dowry and the people choose according to wani piro (potential payouts), the results will be predictable and our country will move in a shambles. The campaign materials that have been disseminated containing hoaxes, slander, hate speech, twisted facts and false data, which could retrogress our civilization and divide the nation, show that some party administrators and campaign teams are employing instigation and propaganda methods like the PKI’s (Indonesian Communist Party, now defunct) method of class struggle.

Venezuela is now at the brink of civil war due to tensions arising from the disproportionate political agitation and propaganda.

Healthy democracy

All parties must work hard to restore the legislative and presidential elections as an arena of ideas, a competition to gain the support and sympathy of the people contingent upon the excellence of their programs. The legislative and presidential elections are not a battlefield, and social media should be used for more positive matters. The 2019 legislative and presidential elections are a general election that has employed the broad use of social media to connect leaders directly to the personal space of private citizens. This could be positive, but it could also be overshadowed by negative energies.

The people – the majority of which have only attained elementary education and have low literacy – are highly vulnerable when exposed to heretical thoughts. Today, it is very easy to create public uproar through hoaxes related to the 2019 election that are spread on social media. In August-December 2018, the Communication and Information Ministry recorded 62 online hoaxes related to the 2019 general election. These included the image of a bruised elderly woman, a Morowali rally against Chinese workers and seven cartons of ballot papers (even though the General Election Commission/KPU had not printed them yet) – all of which became widespread and triggered emotional responses from those who believed them.

Unrestricted freedoms have subjected our President – who was elected to power by the people – to verbal abuse, harassment, humiliation and slander. In fact, if the people want a change in leadership, it is better to simply offer better alternatives and ask the people to choose a better leader. Muslim intellectual Mahfud M.D. warned that democracy would open the door to critical thinking and freedom of expression. However, democracy will be harmed if critical thinking is manifest as slander or fake news.

In a democratic country, all activities of political parties are geared towards winning the elections, because an electoral victory means they have gained the people\'s trust to stay in power. They apply the Machiavellian principle that justifies any and all means to achieve their goal. This occurs in many countries, even those with mature democracies: the US election also saw the use of incivility, harsh rhetoric, discourteousness and even racial issues.

Americans continue to disparage US president Nixon for the 1977 Watergate scandal. Our country recently saw an improper political maneuver from a senior political figure, who threatened to mobilize the masses to invade the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). A statesman once said, "it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing".

The 2019 legislative and presidential elections will be beautiful if voters are more rational and better able to analyze the individual qualities of the legislative and presidential candidates. With the system of free and open elections/majority votes, people must be motivated to choose the best figures, not simply because they see their party insignia next to their names. Theoretically, voters in a single area can vote for figure A from party A for the district/municipal DPRD, but figure B from party B for the provincial DPRD; figure C from party C for the DPR, and a presidential candidate that is not supported by either the A, B or C parties.

The 2019 legislative and presidential elections should take place more peacefully because the people, political parties and the presidential-vice presidential pairs are generally undivided and do not follow clear-cut political lines. This political landscape should allow the 2019 election to proceed in a more peaceful, relaxed atmosphere, without violent conflicts.

Now is the right time for the people to deliberate their choices of candidates for both political parties/the legislature and the presidency. It is vital that all parties maintain national harmony and calm. Do not be easily affected by unfounded issues that are spread on social media, including those that question the credibility of the electoral commission.

And at the end of the 12th election process, we believe that our president- and vice president-elect will be people who love this country and who will respect the KPU\'s decision. The same applies to all political parties contesting the legislative election. It is hoped that this 12th election will reflect the developing civilization of our national politics. (Siswono Yudo Husodo, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Pancasila University)