Understanding the Initial Idea of Regional Head Elections in ​​Post- the New Order

 The momentum of the Regional Head Election/Pemilihan Kepala daerah (Pilkada/RHE) as a political learning process for the political community in the region can be seen from three things, namely: (1) The direct RHE really demands the readiness of the people to be able to articulate their interests, so that the shape of their political attitude is a reflection of the needs they want realized by the people and their leaders; (2) The people have full sovereignty to define their political choices towards the desired regional head candidate figure correctly and precisely, so that the quality of public participation can be directly accounted for. This independence automatically eliminates the potential for voter mobilization which is only legitimate by some political elites or certain groups; (3). The people are highly demanded for their political maturity. This means that they must be ready to choose and determine regional heads in the Pilkada according to their political choices. Without political awareness or literacy, the people experience difficulties in determining their political preferences, including in terms of actualizing their political rights, which in this case is through the Pilkada. The direct election system is not only to produce leaders who have strong legitimacy from the people, but also to produce regional leaders who can carry out the political mandate given by the people, the will of the majority. The question that arises then is whether in the Pilkada, the people have been able to determine their political choices correctly, according to their aspirations and political preferences?

Courtesy of Freepick.com 

The Regional Head Election/Pemilihan Kepala Daerah (RHE/Pilkada) has two meanings, as the success and failure of democracy. RHE is said to be successful because it has shown the participation of the people, the selected nomination process, campaigns, and political contracts. In short, the procedure as a democracy has been complied with and practiced, regardless of the results achieved. While the RHE is called a failure because it still shows the practice of money, the large number of abstentions, the ignorance of voters with their political rights as citizens who have autonomy, the pattern of candidate recruitment from party cadres and others. Stipulated in The Law of Local Government No. 32/2004 that political parties or combinations of political parties that have the right to nominate candidates are limited to large political parties (at least obtaining 15 percent of the total number of Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah/DPRD (district assembly at local level) seats or 15 percent of the accumulated valid votes in the DPRD general election in the area concerned, namely Article 59 paragraph (2) of the Law of Local Government No. 32/2004.

In this way, what actually happened was that voters were being held hostage, voters were already being lured by candidates who were deemed worthy, appropriate by (large) political parties, which then got their approval from the Regional General Election Commission at local level (Komisi Pemilihan Umum Daerah). With this restriction policy, it becomes an opportunity for a new corrupt practice called money politics of 15 percent of the seats. The reason people carry out regional election demonstrations with violence usually leads to the issue of "justice". The nature of democracy has made people more sensitive. The pressures to bring about change come from within and from outside, even from the existing political system due to widespread dissatisfaction.