Awaiting Clean Government

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

Togetherness under Pancasila – People of different faiths gather under the Garuda Pancasila statue at Jakarta Cathedral in June 2018. They were participating in an interfaith breaking-of-the-fast event themed “Strengthening Tolerance, Brotherhood and Solidarity of Humanity”.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The public are awaiting elaboration on programs for establishing a government clean of corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN), as well as strengthening the state ideology Pancasila, from the two presidential candidates during the fourth debate round on Saturday (3/30/2019). It is believed that measurable solutions to these two issues will be highly influential to critical voters who are as yet undecided.

The two candidates, incumbent Joko Widodo and challenger Prabowo Subianto, are to face off in the fourth presidential debate round and exchange their ideas on ideology, government, security and defense, and international relations.

The results of the Kompas R&D survey on March 26-27, 2019 involving 509 respondents in 16 major cities shows that issues on governance are the most important (27.1 percent), followed by ideology (25.7 percent). Among governance issues, the most urgent is corruption, collusion and nepotism (42.8 percent). Meanwhile, strengthening Pancasila is the most pressing among ideological issues (33.4 percent).

University of Indonesia Center of Political Studies executive director Aditya Perdana said in Jakarta on Thursday (3/28) that the public wanted to hear from Jokowi and Prabowo about their views on Pancasila and see whether they had similar or contrasting views on the state ideology.

“Another interesting discussion topic for the two candidates is resolving polarization after the election. The election has created polarization that divides the nation. How can the national ideology be sustained in the current condition? The public needs to know how the candidates plan to nurture the national ideology after the election,” explained Aditya.

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

Togetherness under Pancasila – People of different faiths pose for photographs under a statue of the Virgin Mary at Jakarta Cathedral in June 2018, during an interfaith breaking-of-the-fast event.

Regarding a government clean of KKN, Firman Noor, the head of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) of Political Research Center, said that the roles of political parties should also be highlighted. The parties were deemed to have a central role in eradicating KKN in the government. Political costs were deemed to have caused parties to feel that they must fulfill their needs through ties with certain oligarchies.

For discussion

The presidential candidates said separately, with varying emphases, that they would discuss the two topics the survey respondents had deemed important.

On the sidelines of a campaign event in Mamuju, West Sulawesi, Jokowi said that he had made no special preparations for the fourth debate.

“I will just let it flow. The [topics] for the debate on [Saturday] are government, ideology, defense and international politics. I will speak about what we’ve done so far,” he said.

Concerning strengthening the state ideology, Jokowi’s running mate Ma’ruf Amin said in Sleman, Yogyakarta, that he and the incumbent would focus specifically on the issue. He said that the national ideology should be strengthened in all possible ways amid today’s challenges. This could be achieved by education to reinforce Pancasila at schools, universities, religious schools and community forums.

Jokowi-Ma’ruf national campaign spokesperson Ace Hasan Syadzily said that, as regards strengthening the state ideology, Jokowi would propose standardized learning materials and methods on Pancasila for the education system and evaluating regulations that contradicted Pancasila.

Professional government

Sudirman Said, the debate director of the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno national campaign, said that, if elected, Prabowo would create a professional, reliable and clean government that would not be susceptible to corruption. This was Prabowo-Sandiaga’s initial step towards bureaucratic reform in all levels of government.

Prabowo-Sandiaga steering committee member Fadli Zon said that the high number of ministry personnel and state officials involved in corruption showed that the government was not yet clean.

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

Students hold up the Cahaya Bineka, Taman Bangsa: Pancasila Value in Educational Practice handbook in May 2018 at the Nusantara IV building in the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta. The students were taking part in an event on the four pillars of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) and a declaration on Pancasila school education, which was organized by the MPR, the Pancasila Ideology Development Agency (BPIP), the House of Representatives (DPR) Pancasila Caucus and the Cahaya Guru Foundation.

He said that corruption cases remained the most prominent in the ministerial/institutional system directly under the President.

“Pak Prabowo will fix this by implementing a clean government in line with the principles of good governance,” he said.

(AGE/REK/SAN/NTA)