By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA
Indonesia’s outgoing parliament has passed a bill replacing direct local elections with indirect ones in which provincial governors, district chiefs and mayors will be selected by members of the legislature rather than the people.
The ruling came Friday morning after 226 members of parliament from a faction supportive of losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto banded together in a "Red and White Coalition" that voted in support of the move.
Since morning, the public has taken to social media to condemn the legislature, with the currency falling to a 4-month low
"Welcome to the black democracy," texted attorney Denny – many Indonesians use only one name - when asked by the Anadolu Agency for his opinion.
Only 135 MPs – led by the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) – voted in favor of direct elections after 142 members of the Democrat Party -- led by outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono -- walked out of the hearing before the vote, despite having announced their support.
The PDI-P highlighted that the Democrats knew exactly what they were doing, having been prepared to walkout since the vote was announced.
Talking to AA, Ari Junaedi - a political science teacher at the University of Indonesia’s Graduate School - described the Democrats’ attitude as "chameleon" - criticizing them for abstaining from the vote despite being against indirect elections.
"If only the democratic factions had remained in the room and united together, then victory would still be wide open for the opponents of proposed elections through the house," he said.
Expressing doubt that Yudhoyono and his party were committed to the aspirations of the people, Ari accused the Democrats’ of offering their support to restore the party's image after their popularity dropped following accusations many members were involved in corruption.
Twitter users also expressed discontent with President Yudhoyono with the hashtag #ShameOnYouSBY.
@Nouvalgeha wrote, "Thanks to @SBYudhoyono, you have killed people right on democracy with bequeathing "indirect local election". #ShameOnYouSBY ".
Meanwhile, president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo – the PDI-P’s nominee in last July's election who will be sworn in October 20 – called the bill a step back for democracy, denouncing how political parties had seized people's political rights to elect their candidates for leadership.
"People can see which party seized the political rights of the people. Make a note of it," Jokowi was quoted as saying by Kompas.com.
Indirect elections have not been a practice in Indonesia since the military dictatorship of former president Suharto ended 16 years ago.
www.aa.com.tr/en
