TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Jakarta Office of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) released the democracy index that shows Jakarta's level of democracy has never been stable from 2009 to 2015.
In 2012, the democracy level was 77.72. It dropped to 71.18 in 2013 before increasing to 84.70 in 2014. This year, the index rose to 85.32.
This year, Jakarta's tops the democracy index list for Indonesia, followed Yogyakarta (83.19), East Kalimantan (81.24), and North Kalimantan (80.16).
BPS chief Syech Suhaimi said the improved index is related to Jakarta residents' increasing awareness of their voting rights. "In 2015, there were plenty of community movements supporting certain candidates for the 2017 governor's election," said Sych.
However, some of these public movements utilized threats and violence against one another, thus limiting the freedom of assembly and expression.
Suhaimi said the fluctuating level of democracy in Jakarta reflects political parties' immaturity in exercising democracy. "Although the score is good, it fluctuates from year to year," he said last week.
INDRI MAULIDAR