Armando Siahaan, Jakarta – The government's proposal to move gubernatorial elections from the hands of the people back into the hands of regional legislatures is being greeted with calls for the government to have another look at its regional autonomy concept.

The proposal was contained in a draft revision of the 2004 law on regional elections prepared by the Home Affairs Ministry that has been finalized and will soon be submitted to the House of Representatives for deliberation. The current law stipulates that the heads of local government – governors, district heads and mayors – are elected directly.

But arguing that the financial and social costs for elections of governors – who have seen their power curbed under the government's regional autonomy drive – are worryingly high, the government wants the top official in provinces to be elected by the legislative assemblies only.

Siti Zuchro, a regional autonomy expert from the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI), said that if the main rationale was cost considerations, then the government should evaluate the overall regional autonomy structure. "In general, direct elections do not show positive correlation with good governance that serves and benefits the people," she said.

Ahmad Helmy Faishal Zaini, the state minister for the acceleration of development in underdeveloped regions, recently announced that the country is still home to no less than 183 underdeveloped districts.

Using that figure, Siti concluded that the wide authority given to district heads and mayors who are elected directly by the people in their regions, has failed to propel development in the regions.

Siti said she believed the government should redesign the format of regional autonomy, putting back much of the power into the hands of provincial governments.

In her proposed format, the provincial government should be in charge of development planning and provide coordination, direction and supervision while the district governments focus on implementing the plans.

"As a consequence, direct elections take place at the provincial level, while district heads and mayors are elected in the DPRD," she said, referring to the regional legislative council.

Under such a scenario, the governor holds the top authority over a region, but that would have to be legitimated.

The current law provides greater powers to the governments at the district and mayoralty levels while governors are basically relegated to the role of being the central government's representative in the region.

Lili Romli, a LIPI researcher, said that before determining the mode of elections, the government should first decide on how much power a governor should ideally have.

"If the position of a provincial government is merely that of an administrative area, an extension of the government, then the governor should just be appointed by the president," Lili said.

However, if the province remains an autonomous unit, "then the people should have the right to elect their own leader."

The LIPI researcher also rebuffed the government's argument that an election by the DPRD is constitutional and not undemocratic. "The DPRD is indeed elected by the people, but it is not created to take over the people's rights to vote," he said.

The country's translation of democracy at the various levels of governments – from the president down to the mayors – should be consistent, he said.

Lili conceded, however, that direct elections are currently marred with wide-ranging problems such as rampant money politics and horizontal conflicts pitting people against each other.

"We should not immediately quit direct elections just because it has weaknesses. We should instead find ways to fix it," he said.

Instead of seeking to revert to the old system, the government should rather work on ways to cut election costs, such as by holding the contests simultaneously and through electronic voting.

Hadar Gumay, chairman of the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), argued that direct elections were more effective in curtailing money politics – the practice of buying of votes – which he said remained a major problem in direct elections.

"With direct elections, the candidates would have to pay hundreds, thousands or even millions of voters," he said. "While a DPRD election would allow them to hand over money to just a few dozen DPRD members."

Taufiq Hidayat, a Golkar party legislator, has warned that indirect elections could lead to regional political oligarchies.

Governors could feel indebted to the political parties that voted for them in regional legislatures, he said.

But some saw the government's proposal as a positive solution for the myriad of problems posed by direct elections.

"Direct elections are prone to horizontal conflicts," said Agus Purnomo, a member of House Commission II from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

Priyo Budi Santoso, House deputy speaker, said that critics should see the proposal not as a setback for democracy, "but as one of the solutions to the grave consequences of a messy system."