The SRI Mulyani Party

Yesterday the news media reported about the submission of application for registration of a  new political party called S.R.I ( Serikat Rakyat Independen = Independent People Union) with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

The party claimed (here) that it already has 33 branches i.e one branch in every 33 provinces of Indonesia, therefore its leaders are confident that it would be eligible to participate in the 2014 general election.

But the most interesting thing about this new party is its plan to nominate Sri Mulyani (48), former Finance Minister currently Managing Director of the World Bank, as a candidate in the 2014 presidential election..
Unfortunately, Sri Mulyani has never confirm about this.

The plan to nominate Sri Mulyani received various response from the public, one of them is human rights activist Hendardi who said (here) that her nomination may be blocked by the Bank Century scandal : the unclear 6,7 Trillion Rupiah Bail Out of a privately owned bank when she was Finance Minister.

Hendardi said that Sri Mulyani can only be nominated as candidate president if the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) clear her name. The problem is that the KPK has not investigate her until now.

I agree with Hendardi's opinion about Sri Mulyani, but I am not sure whether or not the SRI Party will get the approval to participate in the 2014 general election. Even if the party can get said approval, to nominate a presidential candidate it needs to get 20% of the seats in the national parliament, or 25% of the total legitimate votes in the general election (here). Otherwise, it has to form a coalition with other parties.

So, in my opinion Sri Mulyani's political future in Indonesia is still very uncertain.

The case would be different if Sri Mulyani could join forces with big political parties like the ruling Democrat Party, of course her name should be cleared first by the KPK.
Or, perhaps with the Golkar Party but it would be almost impossible because it has been trying hard get her down for the Bank Century scandal.

Congrats Thailand

Following months of unrest by the supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (2001-2006) the people of Thailand on 3 July carried out a general election and elected 500 members of Parliament.

Result of election was very surprising, whereby the opposition Phue Thai Party led by Yingluck Shinawatra (44), sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, won 265 seats in Parliament, while the ruling Democrat Party led by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva only got 159 seats.

Prime Minister Abhisit has acknowledged his defeat and congratulated Yingluck Shinawatra for her victory, the military forces, which played dominant role in Thailand's political life, do not raised any objection, and the Monarchy most probably would also agree with the result of election.

Due to the above mentioned facts, it is most likely that Yingluck Shinawatra will become Thailand's first female Prime Minister.

Thailand is not a strange country for Indonesia, not only because both countries were founding fathers of ASEAN, but also because of centuries of historical relationship which each other.

Indonesian market today is filled with many products imported from Thailand like the Monthong Durian and other Fruits, Rice, Toyota Vios and Honda City cars.

And every year many Indonesians traveled to Thailand for vacation and/or shopping.

Moreover, both countries have experienced authoritarian  military rulers, now adopting the same kinds of liberal democracy, and fighting against corruptions.

I hope that the positive things that have happened in Thailand would be taken as good examples by the politicians and military generals in Indonesia on how to govern the country and people.

Who Will Be The Next President ?

President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY)  will end his second office term in 2014, and according to the  amended Constitution of Indonesia, he cannot be nominated again as candidate in the next presidential election.

Although until now there is still no one who seems to be good enough to be the next president of Indonesia, but I am very certain that there is one person out of the 240 million population who is eligible to take that job.

In this regards, I would like to share with you an article that I have read in Kompas about the nomination of  the Chief of the Constitutional Court Mahfud MD and Director of the International Monetary Fund Sri Mulyani as Presidential candidates.

As Indonesian citizens, both of them may be nominated as Presidential candidates if they fulfill requirements stipulated by the Presidential Election Law among others should be nominated by one or more political parties that won enough votes in the 2014 General election.

As far as I know, Sri Mulyani is not a member of a political party, while Mahfud is a former official of the National Awakening Party (PKB).

What do you think ?

Related articles :
- Mahfud MD - Sri Mulyani President 2014-2018 (Blog)
- MMD - SMI 4 President (Facebook)

Election Violations

Since our country held its Parliamentary Election on Thursday, 9 April, our news media have been reporting about violation complaints voiced by political parties competing in the said election.

Based on the General Election Law No. 10 Year 2008 Art. 247 Par.4, such kind of complaints should be submitted by those political parties to the General Election Supervision Board (Bawaslu) within three days after the said election date i.e. on Saturday 11 April at midnight (24.00 hours).

According to VivaNews, until 11.40 pm last night, Bawaslu has received at least 549 complaints consisting of 363 Administrative Violations, 75 Criminal Violations, and 111 Miscellaneous Violations. And Lampung is the province with the biggest number of violations i.e. 112 cases.

Further TVOne quoted Wahidah Suaib of Bawaslu as saying that the Administrative Violations consists of among others: Misplacement of Ballots, Voter not registered in the Permanent Voters List (DPT), Unannounced DPT, Ballot’s seal broken. Criminal Violation: Money Politic, Voter cast the ballot more than one time. While Miscellaneous Violation: Chaos or act of Anarchy.
Based on Art. 257 of the General Election Law, Court Verdicts for the Criminal Violation should be passed not less than 5 days before the General Election Commission (KPU) announced the final result of election on 9 May.

According to Kompas, the Head of Bawaslu i.e. Nurhidayat Sardini promised to take immediate action to respond and take legal actions on all complaints received by Bawaslu.

I hope that Bawaslu will settle all the complaints on time i.e. not less than 5 days before KPU make the announcement regarding the final result of Parliamentary Election, so that the KPU will be able to make proper preparations for the Presidential Election on 8 July 2009. That way, KPU would be able to prevent or at least minimized the negative things that happened in the Parliamentary Election.

Is Starbucks sponsoring the Election?

That was the question that I asked myself when I first read an advertisement in today's Kompas Newspaper Page 10, as shown below :

The Campaign Carries On

Last Sunday, campaign for the general election has ended, and based on the General Election Law 10/2008, 38 political parties will go through a cooling down period before the general election on Thursday, 9 April 2009. During which, they are not allowed to do and/or say things which can be regarded as campaign.

However, it seems that the above law is only obeyed in real world, but not in the virtual world. According to Tempointeraktif, someone has opened a site in the social networking media Facebook titled Say No!!!” to Megawati, which until yesterday 10 am, has been supported by 64,188 people.
And at the same time, there is also a site titled Say No to Prabowo, which was supported by 751 people. Note: when I checked one hour ago the supporters has jumped to 3,068 people.

The strange thing is that there is another site which is contradictory to both sites, titled: Say Yes to SBY, which was supported by 5,185 people. Note: when I write this post the number has jumped to 116,286 people.

Further, Kompas reported that the “Say “No!!! to Megawati site was banned by Facebook on Tuesday, 7 April, 1 am, when its supporters have reached a total of 97,177 people.
However, this action did not stop the Anti Megawati campaign, because a similar site titled SAY NO TO MEGAWATI which until today noon has been supported by 4,071 people. Note: when write this post the number has jumped to 13,774 people.

Considering the cooling down period from 6 to 8 April, I hope that all parties participating in the general election on 9 April would refrain from saying and/or doing things which would offend other parties. And I also hope that they do not get easily offended by statements made by unclear people in the internet. That way peace and order can be maintained, and the majority of our people can live in peace

Homes for Frustrated Candidates

Today is the last day of campaign for candidates running for the General Election on 9 April 2009. Starting tomorrow there will be a cooling down period during which those candidates are not allowed to talk and/or do anything in public that can be considered as campaigning.

I can imagine that those candidates must have been doing everything they can and spent a lot of money during the campaign period. This is obvious because there are so many candidates who are competing for only very few seats in the parliaments.
According to Media Indonesia, there are 11,215 candidates competing for 560 seats of the People’s Representative Council (DPR), and 1,109 candidates competing for 132 seats of the Regional Representative Council (DPD). Beside that, there are 112,000 candidates competing for 1,998 seats of the Provincial Parliaments (DPRD I) and 1,500,000 candidates for 15,750 seats of the Regional and/or Municipality Parliaments (DPRD II).
Due to these facts, it can be ascertained that most of the candidates would fail, therefore very disappointed or even frustrated.
In order to anticipate this, the Department of Health has asked 32 Mental Hospitals throughout Indonesia to provide treatment for those frustrated candidates. Unfortunately, those hospitals only have a capacity of 8,500 beds.
However, Kompas Newspaper quoted Dr Faried Patuti, a Psychiatric at a hospital in Bogor as saying that candidates who are elected also face the risk of having a mental breakdown too, because he/she does not expected will win. Mental hospitals preparing for those frustrated candidates include hospitals in Bogor, Samarinda-Kalimantan, Grogol-Jakarta. They will be placed in VIP rooms charged much higher than normal patients, ranging from Rp 80,000 to Rp 288,000 per day.

In conclusion I felt sorry for those candidates who are too ambitious to reach their goals which are very difficult to achieve. But I am happy that the Mental Hospitals have made anticipatory preparations to treat candidates who failed to be elected in the general election on 9 April.

Won't Get Fooled Again!

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

That’s the refrain of the song “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who, which implies that we cannot expect a new government to be different from whom it replaced. This is the song that I always remember every time our country is facing a general election. Here is my experience :

After the reform came to Indonesia in 1998, I have great hope on a political party that has been treated as an underdog by the repressive Soeharto regime because it defended the less fortunate people i.e. Wong Cilik (Small People). So, in the 1999 election I gave my vote to that party, and it won.

However in 5 years that follows, said party’s performance was far from expectation, instead of defending the Wong Cilik it defended the Wong Licik (Tricky People). I felt so upset & hopeless that in the elections in 2004, I did not cast any vote in both the parliamentary and presidential elections.

The next government, from 2004 until now, performed quite well in various fields, maintained peace & order and made serious anti corruption campaign, bringing better hopes to many people.

For the General Election on 9 April, 38 political parties, many of which have similar political platforms, nominate legislature candidates with various backgrounds, starting from Tukang Becak & Tukang Bakso, to successful businessmen, therefore confusing the public.

Further, although the Presidential Election Law No. 42/2008 stipulated that the candidates should be nominated by a political party or several political parties that won 20% of the seats in the national parliament or 25% of national electoral votes, however those parties already named many candidates for the presidential election on 8 July: President SBY, VP Jusuf Kalla, former president Megawati, Prabowo, Wiranto, Soetiyoso, Deddy Mizwar. They advertised themselves in the mass media. Two of them have approached bloggers, i.e. Jusuf Kalla who met bloggers on 19 March, and Prabowo, who according to Unspun, has invited bloggers to meet him next Tuesday, 31 March 8 pm, at Amigos, Kuningan.

As a conclusion, I felt that there are too many political parties who will participate in the next general election. And considering that many of those parties have similar political platforms, therefore I would only focus my attention on 4 to 5 political parties which I think eligible. Hopefully this time I would be able to find one which is suitable for me, one that I would not regret.

Election Cooling Down Period

The open Election Campaign conducted by 38 Political Parties from 16 March to 5 April 2009 will surely create great tensions among them and their supporters, which in the end will have frightening impact on our society in facing the general election on 9 April 2009.

Considering this fact and in compliance with the General Election Law No. 10/2008, after the campaign period ended, there will be a cooling down period from 6 to 8 April, before the voters go to the ballots. During this cooling down period, all political parties and their members are not allowed to do any action which can be considered as campaign. Beside that, according to The Jakarta Globe, the print and broadcast media, are not allowed to run news stories, advertisements, records of the political parties and its members, or other forms of publicity that would benefit or damage the parties.
Moreover, public opinion survey (Poll) are also banned from publishing survey results during the period. Violating that rule carries up to Rp 12 million equivalent to US$ 1,008.00 in fines. An association of survey firms has filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court to annul that article and several other related articles.

As an eligible voter, I can understand that the rule regarding the above cooling down period is intended to calm down the public. However, I think that announcement of Poll Survey during the cooling down period can be acceptable provided that they are conducted by institutions which have high credibility, reliability & good reputation.

The Open Election Campaign

On Monday, 16 March, 2,200 members of 38 political parties gathered at Kemayoran Convention Hall, Jakarta, to begin the open campaign for General Election on 9 April, during which party leaders pledged to conduct campaigns peacefully.

In spite of this fact, the General Election Commission (KPU) has still no clear agenda for the open campaign, therefore causing confusion among the political parties.
According to The Jakarta Post, actually KPU has announced last Friday that four political parties may conduct open campaign on the same day. But due to protest from contestants KPU will revise the schedule. For which purpose it will meet political parties on Wednesday to talk about revision of schedule that will allow each party to conduct two open rallies in every province.
Meanwhile, The Jakarta Globe reported that President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono has warned state officials contesting as candidates in the election not to abuse their power during the campaign period.
Further, Kompas reported that during the gathering on Monday, some political parties have involved children. This is a clear violation of the General Election Law No. 10/2008 Article 84 Paragraph 2 that forbids involvement people, who are ineligible to vote during the campaign. Punishment for violations will be up to 12 months imprisonment and fine of up to Rp 60 million.

Although past experience shows that pledge made by political party leaders did not guarantee a peaceful campaign, especially now that the schedule is still unclear, however, I still have high hopes that this time all the parties concerned would avoid any possibility of conflicts among them.

Candidates for the Presidential Race

This year, Indonesia will hold two elections i.e general election on 9 April to elect the members of national, provincial & regional parliaments; and the Presidential election on 8 July.

The General election will be participated by 38 political parties in the national level, and 6 additional political parties in the province of Aceh.
For the Presidential election, more than 10 public figures have announced their candidacy. But considering our Presidential Election Law stipulated that only candidates supported by a political party or group of political parties with min. 20% of the votes in the national parliamentary election can do so, most likely there will only be 3 candidates i.e. President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY), Vice President Jusuf Kalla and former President Megawati. As president, SBY has maximum public attention although his Democrat Party now has less parliamentary seats than Kalla’s Golkar, or Megawati’s Democratic Party for Struggle (PDIP).
Kalla's announcement about his candidacy last week surprised many people, because initially he and many members of his Golkar Party have stated that he will only run for SBY's Vice President. The change took place after SBY refuse to name his running mate.
According to The Jakarta Post/AP Simamora, Kalla's candidacy has been welcomed by elites of the new and old political parties who hope that it will provide more options for coalitions.
While The Jakarta Globe/Febriamy Hutapea quoted what President SBY has said in an interview with MetroTV that he hope Kalla's candidacy would not disturb the running of his government until its term end on 20 October.
Further, Kompas/Suhartono reported that based on a result of survey from 8 till 16 February there are three alternative possibilities for President-Vice President pairings, i.e. SBY-Kalla, Kalla-Hidayat Nur Wahid/PKS, and Megawati-Sri Sultan.

In view to the above, I hope that the parlimentary elections would result only few (5-7) political parties who will get parliamentary seats, and force the others to merge with them. Therefore our political system would be less complicated. While the Presidential election will result a proven strong, reliable, fair, unselfish, capable & motivating person as a winner.