In the movie Spider-man, there is a stage in Peter Parker’s
life where he earns money as a professional wrestler. Using his
superpowers, he wins fights against many different types of opponents.
Later, Parker realizes that it is not fair for someone with superhuman
powers to fight head-to-head against an average person.
There has
been a recent renewal of public interest in political dynasties. The
26-year-old regent of Bangkalan, Makmun Ibnu Fuad, is continuing his
father’s reign. The mayor of Cimahi was elected to continue her
husband’s term of office.
Banten is a prominent example of a
family having a strong presence in politics. Governor Ratu Atut
Chosiyah’s sister, Ratu Tatu Chasanah, is the deputy regent of Serang,
her stepbrother,Tb Haerul Jaman, is the mayor of Serang and her sister
in-law, Airin Rachmi Diany, is the regent of South Tangerang. Numerous
Banten councilors are also Atut’s blood relatives.
General
director of Regional Autonomy Djohermansyah said that there were 57
local chief executives elected to continue the offices of blood
relatives. Concerns about political dynasties has prompted the
government to a submit revision of Law 32/2004 on local elections, which
would prohibit direct blood relative of local chief executives running
in an immediate local election to succeed the incumbent.
Home
Minister Gamawan Fauzi said the prohibition includes vertical
relationships such as a father and child as well as horizontal blood
relationships such as brother and sister.
Opponents of the policy
say that the prohibition would go against human rights and equality
before the law. They vow to challenge the bill at the Constitutional
Court (MK), if it is passed into law.
The fight against the
excessive accumulation of power and the promotion of fair competition
within a clear legal framework was the essence of the 1998 reformation.
Among the reformation’s legacy is decentralization, which reduces the
central government’s political power, presidential term limitations and
the formation of the Commission for the Supervision of Business
Competition (KPPU), which the curbs the excessive accumulation of
economic power.
However, there is no commission that ensures fair
political competition. Drawing from Aristotle’s distributive justice,
there is an idea about treating equals equally and unequal’s unequally
(Nicomachean Ethics, Book V, Chapter VI).
During the New Order,
there was a joke going around that the most important qualification for a
president was having experience as a president. Since the only person
with presidential experience was president Soeharto, he was re-elected
without being challenged. The constitutional amendment after Soeharto’s
downfall that limits presidential terms to a maximum of two is an
acknowledgement that the right to run for office is not absolute.
The
term limit ensures the rise of new voices and fresh approaches at least
once a decade. It also applies Aristotle’s concept that a two-term
president would not compete on equal terms with any other person, thus
needs to be treated unequally by being prohibited from running for a
third term.
The public and legal community has agreed on the
validity of prohibiting the chief executive from a third term. The
question is: Would prohibiting the candidacy of direct relatives be
justifiable?
Having an incumbent’s direct relative as a candidate
would also deter a highly qualified and competent person who is a
nonrelative from running for the same office. Empirical data shows that
regions with lower social mobility at top executive positions tend to
display lower human development and governance quality.
In his
study entitled “Populism, Dynasty and Consolidation of Parties”, Marcus
Mietzener implies that Indonesia is still a society with a scent of
feudalism at the democracy consolidation stage. Many shadows of
Indonesia’s past looms close enough to pull it back from becoming a
mature democracy that is able to provide welfare for its people.
There
is also a strong argument toward extending prohibition to nieces and
cousins as in the traditional kingdom; they got full family support to
become successors in the case that a child or brother did not display
adequate leadership and competence.
Indonesia also faces the
problem of the politicization of civil service. Formally, the civil
service is neutral in elections. But there have been many instances
where the re-election of an incumbent executive benefitted from the
support of civil servants.
When an incumbent’s relative runs for
office, he or she would benefit from the incumbency by hook, respect
and a speck of feudalism, or by crook, a blatant directive to support,
without any additional scrutiny toward an incumbent.
If we look
abroad, there are political dynasties in many countries. In the US,
there is the Bush family from which the father and son both served as
president, in the Philippines there is the Macapagal family from which
the father and daughter both served as president and in Singapore there
is the Lee family from which both the father and son served as prime
minister. There is one similarity between all the above mentioned pairs,
which is that they were all not elected consecutively. There was at
least one nonrelated person who served as chief executive between the
father and child’s term.
However, we should be careful in
casting the net too wide. Prohibition should not be more than one term.
If a majority of the people elects a blood relative after five years
without the benefit of incumbency, then that is a display of real
support that should be respected. Expanding prohibition between
different levels and branches of the government would be too much too
soon. We should take one step then observe the impact.
Indonesia
still has to address the problems of poverty, equality and service
provision. The Regional Autonomy Law puts responsibility on the back of
regents and mayors. Therefore, it is imperative that the regional head
is a capable person and is elected on their merits, not on ascribe
status and family relationships. As the Prophet Muhammad said, a country
that does not put its most capable people in governing positions is
waiting for its own destruction.
Law No. 5/1999 on antimonopoly
states that economic freedom and competition has its limits. It would be
prudent to put some well-thought legal limit on political competition
in the revision of Law 32/2004 on local government. As Peter Parker’s
uncle would have said, “With great power, comes great responsibility” to
regulate it.
The writer is lecture in planning and public
policy at the University of Indonesia, senior economist at INDEF and
deputy chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Scholar Association (ISNU).
