Political Regeneration under Threat

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The number of young legislative candidates elected to the House of Representatives (DPR) in the 2019 election fell quite significantly compared to the 2014 election. Young politicians need to be encouraged to accelerate regeneration.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The lower number of young figures elected as legislative candidates to the House of Representatives in 2019 reflects problems in the process of political regeneration in Indonesia. If the matter is not seriously addressed, there will be a generational gap between the politicians who determine policies and young people who are starting to play an increasingly large role in various sectors amid rapid digital transformation. Based on a Kompas R&D study, the number of legislative candidates aged 40 years and under, who made it to the DPR for the 2019-2024 term, is down from those who won seats for the 2014-2019 term. This study takes into account decision of the Constitutional Court in disputes over election results, especially for the DPR, from Aug. 6 to 9, 2019.

Only 72 of 575 members of the DPR, or 12.5 percent, are classified as young. This percentage is down from the 2014-2019 term, where 92 of 560 DPR members, or 16.4 percent, were young. Moreover, half of the 72 young legislative candidates selected for the 2019-2024 term are thought to have entered the House with the help of kinship politics. Thirty-six candidates of the 72 young legislative candidates have kinship relations with political elites at the regional or national level, either as children, wives, sons-in-law or grandchildren.
The decline in young elected legislative candidates comes as the number of young legislative candidates contesting in the 2019 election was not much different from the 2014 election. As many as 28 percent of the 5,052 legislative candidates in the 2019 election who were willing to open their personal data were aged 40 years and under.
The proportion of young DPR member differs significant from the share of young people in the overall population. Based on Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data for 2018, around 40 percent of 265 million Indonesians are in the 15-39 age group.
Hillary Brigitta Lasut, 23, an elected legislative candidate from the NasDem Party, who was contacted from Jakarta on Sunday (11/8/2019), said the opportunity for young legislative candidates to compete in the legislative election was actually open. However, the competitive dynamics saw many young legislative candidates fail if they did not have the finances or strong networks in the regions. Therefore, some of the young legislative candidates that qualified had certain privileges, for instance as children of businessmen, regional leaders or party elites. Hillary is the daughter of Talaud regent-elect Elly Lasut.
"So, the problem does have something to do with the quality of young people, because those who were fighting in the election were young people with achievements. However, there is a problem in our political system. The existing system makes it difficult for young children to get a place, even though opportunities actually exist," she said.
Moreover, according to a DPR member from the Golkar faction, Dave Akbarshah Fikarno Laksono, 40, the key for young candidates to enter the Senayan legislature was the right approach of communication with the grassroots.
Meanwhile, the deputy secretary-general of the Democratic Party, Renanda Bachtar, said the party had opened a large space for young cadres to advance as DPR candidates. However, there were many factors behind the decline in the number of young DPR members, including the 2019 election battle, which was fierce with issues of ethnicity, religion, tribal and group affiliation, which was a major obstacle for young candidates in certain regions. Moreover, pervasive transactional politics meant young legislative candidates with minimal capital were unable to challenge incumbents.
Unprepared
Institute for Economic and Social Research, Education and Information research director Wija Wijayanto said the decline in the number of legislative candidates elected among the many young candidates showed that political parties did not prepare them well. Instead of preparing regeneration and rejuvenation properly, political parties resorted to kinship politics.
KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI
A congress participant congratulates chairperson of Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Megawati Soekarnoputri after swearing in members of PDI-P’s Central Executive Board (DPP) for the 2019-2024 term during the closing of the fifth PDI-P Congress at the Grand Inna Bali Beach Hotel, Bali, Saturday (10/8/2019).
With regard to this, LIPI political science professor Lili Romli said political parties should encourage or provide "protection" to capable young politicians. This could be done by giving them the serial number. Even though an open-list proportional system is applied in the election, the serial number still influenced voter preferences.
Another form of protection could be to not place them in electoral districts with "hard" competition. Moreover, young legislative candidates needed to be guided by parties and not abandoned in the midst of increasingly tight electoral battles. In the 2019 election, electoral contests were particularly hard because of the rising number of parties compared to the 2014 election. There was also an increase in the electoral threshold of 0.5 percent from the previous election.
"[Slow] regeneration is very dangerous. [The legislature] will be filled only by old people. There is no refreshment of ideas. Now [the country] has entered the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The younger generation has the ability to deal with that challenge. If the DPR is filled with \'old\' politicians, there might be a [generational] gap," said Lili Romli.
In the era of digital transformation, according to Internet Sehat-ICT Watch activist Donny BU, the leaders must have digital competence, the ability to collaborate with stakeholders and critical-thinking skills based on data or evidence. (AGE/SAN/INK/EDN/GAL)

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