Pro-democracy ACTIVIST, who is also Deputy General Chair of the DPP Confederation of All Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPSI) Arnod Sihite expressed his dismay following the results of the 2024 elections with the names of relatives and families of many politicians in this country appearing.
Arnod found that many DPR RI members were elected as a result of KKN. This, according to Arnod, poses a serious threat to the quality of democracy in the future.
“What happens if we look closely at the DPR’s legislative election results if it’s not his son, his father, his mother, his wife, his nephew who are in the same family circle. There are those who are even greater, the DPR’s husband, the DPR’s father, the wife of the DPR RI, the child of the DPR RI “or not DPD RI. There are former governors, former regents, wives of regents, wives of governors, children of regents, children of ministers or former ministers and so on. It’s extraordinary how perfect KKN is in this country,” complained Arnod to journalists in Jakarta, Thursday (14 /3).
He cannot stop thinking that the democratic process that the activists fought for in 1998 has now been hijacked by a handful of elites who do not want their power to be lost.
More than that, the current space for direct election democracy has become a struggle for capital and power, no longer a battle for vision and mission and ideas about how to become a representative of the people.
“If you have power plus capital then you will definitely be elected, so it is very natural that those who are elected are those who, whether through their father, husband, or mother or wife or uncle, have power in elite circles, these are the people who will be elected. So what happens? the quality of our DPR if it results from a process like this?” Arnod criticized.
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For him, the current quality of democracy is far from expectations, and has even experienced a very significant decline. What reform activists previously fought for against KKN is now growing even more fertile.
“In the past, we fought the spirit of reform against KKN, but now the anomaly is that we are reinforcing the spirit of KKN. This is very bad and should not be allowed,” he continued.
For Arnod, there needs to be restrictions for someone to become a member of the DPR RI, for example only a maximum of 3 terms. Apart from that, it is necessary to emphasize cadre formation, recruitment and the track record of legislative candidates within the party.
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“How is it possible for a DPR to be elected from those who are clearly former corruption convicts? Not to mention there are those involved in watching pornographic videos. That’s true. We need to evaluate the elections, but more importantly political parties must rethink their recruitment so that the quality of our democracy is maintained ,” he stressed.
Arnod asked the public, academics and political parties to take a serious look at this phenomenon. Whatever the perception that is built in society by a political process like this, it does not provide good political education for society and at the same time makes the fate of democracy even bleaker.
“First, with the KKN system built into the legislative candidate recruitment process, cadre formation in political parties is no longer relevant. There are those who have had a bloody process in political parties, who can be crucified or stepped over by new children just because they are children of party elites, for example. “This system definitely violates meritocracy,” explained Arnod.
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Another thing that according to him could be detrimental is the performance of the DPR RI with strategic tasks related to legislative, budgeting and supervisory functions.
In terms of the legislative aspect alone, to what extent will the work of the DPR RI that will be elected be effective while the DPR RI’s target for Prolegnas has always not been achieved.
He explained, for example, in 2022, of the Prolegnas target of 38 bills, only 12 laws will be completed. In 2023, of the Prolegnas target of 42 bills, only 13 will be successful.
“This means that the quality of our DPR, which has so far been below average, will be even worse with the results of the DPR RI, which is a product of KKN. So this country’s money will only be spent on useless things like this? It’s really sad,” he said.
“I’m afraid that if we let this happen then it is not impossible that the Pilkada before our eyes will also be hijacked by family groups of our political elite. The question is: where is the equality of opportunity for other Indonesian children? There are those whose quality is good but because of him or “They are no one’s children, so they don’t have the same agreement. This will truly be a tragedy for our democracy if it is not immediately addressed. Workers hope that politics is a policy of welfare for all Indonesian people, not for families, groups or factions,” he concluded. (RO/Z-1)
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