Elitist Democracy

Posted by AsiaViews | Jan 7, 2018 | 0 |

Jakarta Post

2 Jan 2018

When the midnight sky sparkled with fireworks at the turn of the year, wishes were made and hopes abounded for good luck. For most politicians ( and adventurers), aspiring for office in the June regional elections in 171 regencies, cities and provinces, good fortune is all they seek.

They have even had to ask for Lady Luck’s favor to win the tickets to contest the local elections, no matter their merit. Unless they dare to run as independent candidates, their eligibility to join the race is solely determined by a handful of political party elites, if not oligarchs.

A number of parties claim to have commissioned a selection process that starts from the very bottom or grassroots level. Each regional branch sifts through potential candidates and submits two or three names to the central board, but such a procedure seems like a formality because at the end of the day the party boss can veto as he or she pleases. In some cases, the party chair has already handpicked a candidate before the selection begins.

Simply put, the selection of regional head candidates follows a centralized mechanism, given the absolute power of the party chiefs. In the West Java gubernatorial election, for example, the Golkar Party under then-chairman Setya Novanto preferred Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil over its provincial chapter’s choice of Dedi Mulyadi, who is also the Purwakarta regent. It was only after Setya stepped down that Golkar accepted Dedi.

Obviously the deciding role of the party elite runs counter to the spirit of decentralization to which every elected regional head should adhere. We can imagine how a product of centralized politics could exercise the huge power transferred to the regions as part of decentralization.

The rules of the game have bred regional heads who owe a lot to party oligarchs. There is a time for the elected regional heads to service their debts, which in many cases takes form in government projects awarded to cronies of the party bosses.

The upcoming simultaneous regional elections are deemed as far more strategic than the previous editions in December 2015 and February 2017, as they will involve the country’s three most populous provinces of West Java, East Java and Central Java. The outcome of the elections there will more or less mirror how the political parties will fare in the 2019 legislative and presidential elections next year.

So crucial are the June local elections that all decisions related to the event have been made at the central level. That appears as a legitimate justification of the party oligarchs’ overwhelming interference, but in fact it could endanger democracy as it fertilizes top-down, patriarchal relationships and potentially kills local aspirations.

Needless to say, the selection of gubernatorial and deputy gubernatorial candidates in the three Java provinces were restricted to the party elites, which cannot be said as representing the wishes of local people. Amid high hopes that the regional elections will benefit people the most, the local democratic event is unfortunately an elite affair.

(source:http://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2018/01/02/editorial-elitist-democracy.html)

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

Elitist Democracy