People in 171 regions in the country will hold simultaneous regional elections on June 27, 2018. At the same time, the political process leading up to the Legislative Elections (Pileg) and Presidential Elections (Pilpres) in 2019 also begins.
Responding to these two major events, a number of civil society organizations concerned with democracy, including the Tifa Foundation, also called for a clean electoral process to always be put forward. This is because a clean electoral political process is an effective instrument for citizens to make corrections and encourage changes to policies or political decisions that are considered wrong. If not, Executive Director of the Tifa Foundation Darmawan Triwibowo considers, then electoral politics will only function as the polish of democracy.
"If this mechanism is tainted by bad practices and irregularities, such as corruption and rampant conflicts of interest within the electoral management body, then electoral politics will only function as a frill for democracy," he said.
Darmawan added that if that happens, electoral politics will only become an empty routine because it will not be able to make voters sovereign over the process they go through.
To avoid this, the Tifa Foundation in this political year has focused its work, one of which is to encourage civil society organizations to play an active role in realizing clean electoral politics. At least, there are four agendas that the Tifa Foundation is trying to push, including preventing political corruption and the use of money politics, encouraging accountability and transparency of election organizers, reducing the use of hate speech and incitement against minority groups, and maintaining the neutrality of the military and police in the election process.
Check out the Civil Society Coalition's joint call for Clean Elections in full in the press release below.
A rallying cry
Clean and Democratic Electoral Politics for Pilkada, Pilpres, and Pileg
In June 2018, we will hold simultaneous regional elections in 171 regions, and at the same time undergo a political process ahead of the presidential and legislative elections in 2019. This electoral politics not only provides an opportunity forcitizen voters to demand accountability from their representatives and leaders, but also an opportunity to strengthen the institutionalization of democracy in Indonesia. However, this electoral political event will not be an effective instrument for democratization if the integrity of the process and its management is tainted by various bad practices that continue to take place, in particular:
- Racial Politicization
- Criminalization of political opponents
- Spreading fake news, hate speech, and intimidation
- Non-neutral state apparatus (Police, TNI, ASN, civil servants, intelligence) and election organizers [KPU and Bawaslu];
- Money politics and bribery;
- Falsification of documents and manipulation of procedures for organizing elections, presidential and legislative elections
In view of the seriousness of the threat posed by these bad practices, we make the following call:
- The public as voting citizens must take a role in actively monitoring and overseeing electoral politics so that it runs in line with the principles of the rule of law and respect for human rights. As responsible voters, people are expected to think about the future of this nation by electing leaders who respect democracy, accept and care for diversity, support the eradication of corruption, and do not prioritize tribal and religious identities.
- State apparatus, especially the TNI and Polri, as well as intelligence must be neutral and professional. The National Police Chief and the TNI Commander must ensure that every candidate for Regional Head who comes from the TNI / Polri does not use the strength, resources, network of TNI / Polri territory in the Pilkada contestation. Firm, open and transparent actions must be taken against members of the TNI / Polri who are proven to be in practical politics and or provide support [openly or secretly] to certain candidates. This must be realized with independence and focus on ensuring security in accordance with their functions and duties. On the other hand, bureaucrats, especially incumbents who will run again in political contestation, should not mobilize the State Civil Apparatus [ASN] and utilize state facilities to garner votes.
- Contestants who will compete in the regional elections, legislative elections and presidential elections must comply with the applicable rules and still pay attention to ethical values. Dirty and undignified campaign practices by politicizing ethnicity, religion, race, and intergroup [SARA] to gain votes; pitting and dividing the community by spreading hatred and fake news; deliberately violating the rules and bumping into the values of decency, decency, harmony, and harmony, should not be done.
- Religious leaders should encourage people to remain brothers and sisters despite their different political choices. When religion is often politicized as it is today, religion is truly degraded because it is only used as a means to gain votes and a tool to win. Under these circumstances, religious leaders are tasked with restoring the sovereignty of religion, as enlighteners, reconcilers, moral authorities, and critics of things that dehumanize life and divide the nation. Religious leaders are tasked with making politics have value and truly become a means to build common welfare.
- Political parties as one of the engines of democracy must seriously maintain the spirit of democracy which is the mandate and ideals of reform. In a democratic country, political parties should not provide space for members of the TNI and Polri who are still active to take political steps in Pilkada. The omission of the steps of members of the TNI and Polri is a form of regression of security sector reform which is the agenda of the 1998 reform.
- KPU and Bawaslu supervise the potential forabuse of power and irregularities in office facilities and other acts of violation of the law. Election organizers must strictly adhere to the norms and rules of law that apply and not be influenced, either by pressure or intimidation from parties who want to disrupt the democratic party.
- Independent state institutions that have the mandate to perform their duties and functions in the field of supervision, monitoring, and protection such as Komnas HAM, ORI, Kompolnas maximize their mandate and authority in preventing and handling the occurrence of simultaneous Pilkada vulnerabilities that can harm the rights of citizens and the potential for abuse of the authority of state institutions. In this case, the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] must also have the courage to open and arrest candidates for regional heads who have problems in corruption cases.
Jakarta, March 25, 2018
YLBHI, KontraS, Imparsial, Perludem, Kode Inisiatif, Yayasan Pulih, KWI Commission for Peace, Setara Institute, TIFA Foundation, Ma'arif Institute, Indonesian Interfaith Network, LBH Jakarta, ELSAM, HRWG, SEJUK, Interfidei, IKOHI, PBHI, Fahmina Institute Cirebon, LAPAR Makassar, LK3 Banjarmasin.