Comments on: Yudhoyono’s re-election: Can SBY and Indonesia up their game? http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2009/07/10/yudhoyonos-re-election-can-sby-and-indonesia-up-their-game/ Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:23:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2 By: Lincoln Funghttp://www.eastasiaforum.org/2009/07/10/yudhoyonos-re-election-can-sby-and-indonesia-up-their-game/comment-page-1/#comment-41170 Lincoln Fung Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:37:29 +0000 http://www.eastasiaforum.org/?p=5642#comment-41170 I confess that I am not an expert on Indonesia and know very little about its elections. However, I think Indonesia should be congratulated for its successful democratic elections. The transition to democracy in Indonesia has been remarkable. Every country has its own uniqueness and that is also reflected in the different election systems and rules. For example, Australia has a compulsory election system that fines people for not doing the vote. It does not seem to be very much freedom or democratic for people in deciding to vote personally or not. Very few other countries require that. Also, although Australia is very democratic in terms of allowing very small parties to be elected as either senators or MPs, it does suffer from the bizzare case fairly frequently when an individual senator can ransom the whole government for the minute interest that particular person is pursuring. Is that a desirable outcome, or better than having some other rules like some of the Indonesian ones? There should always be some balance or trade off. There is no system that always produces "good". One needs to be realistic and also rational. Of course the problem is how to define them and I admit that. In the international arena, there should be freedom and democracy too. That is an important point to bear in mind. I confess that I am not an expert on Indonesia and know very little about its elections.

However, I think Indonesia should be congratulated for its successful democratic elections. The transition to democracy in Indonesia has been remarkable.

Every country has its own uniqueness and that is also reflected in the different election systems and rules. For example, Australia has a compulsory election system that fines people for not doing the vote. It does not seem to be very much freedom or democratic for people in deciding to vote personally or not. Very few other countries require that.

Also, although Australia is very democratic in terms of allowing very small parties to be elected as either senators or MPs, it does suffer from the bizzare case fairly frequently when an individual senator can ransom the whole government for the minute interest that particular person is pursuring. Is that a desirable outcome, or better than having some other rules like some of the Indonesian ones?

There should always be some balance or trade off. There is no system that always produces “good”. One needs to be realistic and also rational. Of course the problem is how to define them and I admit that.

In the international arena, there should be freedom and democracy too. That is an important point to bear in mind.

]]> By: Ken Wardhttp://www.eastasiaforum.org/2009/07/10/yudhoyonos-re-election-can-sby-and-indonesia-up-their-game/comment-page-1/#comment-40901 Ken Ward Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:47:15 +0000 http://www.eastasiaforum.org/?p=5642#comment-40901 Amid the widespread celebration of Indonesia's democracy, one should note several undemocratic features of this year's legislative and presidential elections. First, the 2.5% threshold that parties need to cross in order to obtain seats in the DPR in effect disenfranchises millions of Indonesians who have voted for small parties. Second, the requirement that any presidential/vice-presidential ticket have party/parties endorsement prevents the emergence of independent candidates. Third, the requirement for these tickets to be respectively supported by parties that have together won 20% of seats and 25% of votes in the parliamentary election narrows the choice of tickets. There were five in 2004 and only three this year. (Four of the six candidates were party chairmen/women, and SBY was/is Partai Demokrat's paramount leader. Boediono was the odd man out.) Promoting 'new blood' will be hard against the background of this electoral legislation and the practices it fosters. Amid the widespread celebration of Indonesia’s democracy, one should note several undemocratic features of this year’s legislative and presidential elections. First, the 2.5% threshold that parties need to cross in order to obtain seats in the DPR in effect disenfranchises millions of Indonesians who have voted for small parties. Second, the requirement that any presidential/vice-presidential ticket have party/parties endorsement prevents the emergence of independent candidates. Third, the requirement for these tickets to be respectively supported by parties that have together won 20% of seats and 25% of votes in the parliamentary election narrows the choice of tickets. There were five in 2004 and only three this year. (Four of the six candidates were party chairmen/women, and SBY was/is Partai Demokrat’s paramount leader. Boediono was the odd man out.) Promoting ‘new blood’ will be hard against the background of this electoral legislation and the practices it fosters.

]]>