TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Where in the world are ex-convicts allowed to run in democratic elections? The answer will soon be in Indonesia, when and if the General Elections Commission/KPU goes ahead with allowing candidates with a criminal record (‘only petty crimes’) and suspended sentences to run for local and regional elections. This legally, ethically and morally flawed new resolution is the result of what suspiciously looks like a conspiratorial powwow between the KPU, parliament’s government affairs commission and the elections oversight body, BPPU. Can you imagine such representatives sitting in the budget commission toying with state finances or deciding how to fight corruption? Please, lah. “We want a clean and quality candidates,” said Gerindra Party legislator, Riza Patria, who opposed the amendment to the regional elections law, as reported recently in Koran Tempo. Other opponents also plan to file a judicial review and take legal action. Democrazy in action?
Yuli Ismartono