Sunday, April 18, 2010

Stiffer Election Rules for Celebrities

Celebrities have very good chances to win the hearts of people who vote during elections, because they     are  more popular than many politicians

That is the reason why efforts have been made to impose a stiffer election rules that would limit the numbers of celebrities who can be nominated in elections, as reported by The Jakarta Globe.

In my opinion, celebrities who do not violate the laws and regulations are eligible to elect and and be elected during elections. And politicians who felt that they are less popular than celebrities should improve their own quality so as to be able to compete with celebrities.

April 17, 2010

Camelia Pasandaran & Cameron Bates
Julia Perez on the cover of her album, Kamasutra.
Julia Perez on the cover of her album, Kamasutra. 

Indonesian Political Hopefuls to Face Stiffer Poll Rules

In what is already shaping up to be a highly controversial initiative, the Ministry of Home Affairs wants to further tighten eligibility criteria for political candidates in a move seen as aimed at preventing celebrities from running for office.

Under the 2004 Regional Governance Law, a candidate must meet 16 requirements to stand for election, including having a high school diploma, never having been to prison for a crime punishable by more than five years in jail and being at least 30 years old.

“The law requires regional heads to have good moral standards,” Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said on Friday. “For example, if they are proven to have committed adultery, they will be banned from contesting an election. I heard that in the past a person who featured in a sex video later ran in a regional election. It should not be that way.”

Now, with a number of racy celebrities — including actress Julia Perez — throwing their hats into the ring for this year’s 224 regional and municipal elections while admitting to having little political experience, the government is taking further steps.

“We’re going to add another requirement for candidates to have enough experience in government or in civil organizations,” Gamawan said.

“This is to prevent people who know nothing about how to lead a region suddenly becoming district head just because of popularity. We should pity the millions of people whose fate is put in jeopardy.”

Julia, known for her sexy persona and bikini photos, created an immediate stir when she said she was hoping to be the next district head of Pacitan in East Java.

Pacitan is the hometown of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, known for his conservative views on public conduct.

Julia, better known by her nickname Jupe, has said she has much to learn about politics but is willing to learn.

But Gamawan denied suggestions the new requirement had been triggered by celebrities announcing their desire to contest this year’s polls.

“It’s not only for artists, but also other popular people who have no experience,” he said. “To be a regional head, a person must have legal responsibility, political responsibility and moral responsibility to advance the region and lead the people toward prosperity. If a candidate is running on a platform of popularity alone, that’s not appropriate.”

The new requirement will be added to revisions of the 2004 law being drafted by the government. It is likely to be submitted to the House of Representatives by June.

Julia lashed out on Friday at what she said was a government attempt to prevent her from contesting the election.

“It’s directed at me,” she told the Jakarta Globe. “People have the right to become politicians. This is supposed to be a democracy. If the government is saying this is a new rule then clearly this is not right.”

Julia said that she had the backing of eight parties at the district level, including the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) and was “100 percent serious” about contesting the election.

She said she had formed a campaign team and would visit Pacitan on April 25.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

True, to be a democracy, you have to be democratic. Most voters also look at a candidates experience too.

peter

ARUS RASYID said...

Andai para celebritis itu sadar akan dirinya, khususnya mereka yang punya latar-belakang agak gelap misalnya suka tampil dengan pakaian senonoh, apalagi berbugil ria, sebetulnya tak perlu peraturan baru tentang calon kepala daerah. Sebab dengan kesadarannya, para artis itu tentu paham bahwa memimpin sebuah daerah berbeda dengan bermain sinetron. Ketika terjadi kesalahan dalam pengambilan adegan, sutradara bisa mengulanginya. Tapi ketika seorang kepala daerah melakukan kesalahan, maka babak-belur yang terjadi, bahkan mungkin masuk bui. Jadi bukan soal hak ketika belakangan ini banyak artis loncat pagar jadi politisi, malah jadi calon kepala daerah. Tapi lebih karena kepatutan. Jadi baik juga bila Mendagri mengeluarkan aturan baru tentang pilkada, apalagi menyangkut moral calon kepala daerah.
Maaf mas komentarnya kepanjangan.

Unknown said...

@Peter,
That's the point, cnadidates who legally eligible should be allowed to compete, let the voters choose.

Unknown said...

Arus Rasyid,
Terima kasih atas komentar anda.
Pada dasarnya saya juga ingin agar wakil rakyat maupun kepala daerah orang2 bermoral baik. Tapi sangat sulit sekali menentukannya. Nyatanya banyak yang sudah terpilih ternyata bejat dan korup padahal penampilan religius. Sebagai konsekwensi dari demokrasi yang kita sudah pilih maka sepanjang secara hukum orang penuhi syarat dia boleh ikut bertarung. Rakyat tidak bodoh dan tentunya tidak mereka tidak akan pilih orang yang sembarangan.

colson said...

Of course I second your opinion.

What harm can a beauttiful lady do? The minister should rather bar greedy white collar criminals from office.

Unknown said...

Colson,
I just watch TVRI's political discussion moderated by senior actor Slamet Rahadjo with speakers: a lecturer from UI, Golkar MP, DPD etc.
One thing they agreed was that if there is any additional condition for election candidates is that they have no indication of corruption for which purpose their assets/treasures must be checked first and they should be able to prove that they were not obtained illegally. Of course this is almost impossible according to existing laws but if there is political will to eradicate corruption, a supporting law can be issued.

Simon Henderson said...

Interesting topic. We blogged about the same thing.

Once again politicians shifting the goalposts to suit themselves.

Unknown said...

@Simon,
Thank you for dropping by. I'll check your blog. Politicians woul do anything to secure their positions.

Saung Web said...

Kebayang aja nanti masyarakat Pacitan disuruh pake kndm sutra .. haha but its. politic

Link Tea said...

Ah kita wait n see aja deh ini beneran apa cuma manuver aja..

Unknown said...

@Saung Web,
Melihat pengalaman didaerah lain dimana para artis terpilih di pilkada maka bukan tidak mungkin Jupe terpilih kalau di boleh ikut.
Dengan kontroversi rencana pelarangan
akan menaikkan namanya. Jadi buat Jupe dia boleh ikut pilkada atau tidak populeritasnya akan naik.

Unknown said...

@Link Tea,
Anda benar, bukan tidak mungkin ini hanay sekedar sensasi belaka, mengingat partia pendukungnya partai2 gurem.

Meg said...

impresive blog! very interest artical!! keep it up

Unknown said...

Megz,
Thank you for the kind words