Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Expensive Elections

Since 2005, provincial governors, town/city mayors and heads of regencies in Indonesia are directly elected by the people in their provinces/regents/cities..

After that, many governors, mayors and heads of regents have been brought to trial in courts for corruption charges.

In a talk show held by the Jakarta Lawyers Club at TVOne last night, the master of ceremony Karni Ilyas told the audience that since the direct election there were 17 provincial Governors and 150 mayors/regents who have been tried in Court on charges of Corruption.

Gamawan Fauzi, Minister of Home Affairs and former Governor of West Sumatra, the main speaker of teh show, acknowledged the correlationship between the said direct election and corruption.
He said that this is obvious because in order to be an eligible election candidate, one must meet the standard requirements and supported by a political party or group of political parties that have a minimum of 15% seats in the local parliament.

For which purpose, the candidate must have access to lots of money to get support from political party (-ies), for campaign logistics and rallies, for advertisements on the news media, for withness fees, etc.

The Minister estimated that in order to be elected, a candidate governor should spend around 50 Billion up to 100 Billion Rupiah, which is so many times very high compared to the basic salary of 8,7 Million Rupiah that he will receive as Governor. Note :  Beside basic salary, a governor would receive additional money so many times more for attending meetings etc, for clothes, receive benefits like official home, cars, 

Considering that Indonesia is a Unitary State, whereby provincial governors are representatives of the central government in Jakarta, I felt that it would be better if governors are nominated by the central government and elected by the parliaments of each provinces, just like before 2005. That way excessive spending of money for campaign would not be necessary anymore, and corruption can be prevented or at least be minimized.

Sources :
Pemilihan Umum kepala daerah dan wakil kepala daerah (Wikipedia)
Gamawan Fauzi: Pilkada Mahal Sebabkan Korupsi (TVOne)

Photo: Courtesy of UDFL.

9 comments:

Ria Tumimomor said...

I am totally positive that those people will reject your good idea totally point blank...

My short opinion MOSTLY people will turn into devil once they have high position so no matter what the rule are...those people will remain the same

Unknown said...

The Dream Catcher,
I also think so.
But let's be positive and hope that things will change and the present leaders in government and parliament would give to priority for the best interest of the country and people.

yadiebaroos said...

i'm so agree with your oppinion, that need more much money to be collect in election

Unknown said...

Yadiebaroos,
So much money wasted. It would be better to used them for more useful things like education etc.

Seiri Hanako said...

money
money
n
money
huffff

Setyo-Utomo Said said...

It doesn't matter if the result is the right man in the right place !

Unknown said...

@Seiri,
I am glad to see the doctor from Manado again.
Yes, it is all about money lots of them.

@Pak Utomo,
I agree that the most important thing is to ge the right man on the right place, of course he/she should also honest, smart and hard worker.

ReBorn said...

I've read posts that match with your thoughts. but I worry that the indonesian people thought that this new system is not democracy, because chosen by the center. I actually agree from economic and minimize the possibility of corruption standpoint.

Unknown said...

Reborn,
Actually before 2005 all heads of regions are nominated by the central government and elected by the DPRD.

I agree that many people, especially politicians would refuse to return to said system.