Kennial Caroline Laia – As Indonesia's legislative election candidates canvass the public ahead of next months poll, voters have voiced their hopes for the next intake of lawmakers.

Astra, a taxi driver from Jakarta, said he was disappointed with how politicians had performed over the past five years, but would not miss his opportunity to vote on April 9.

"I am exhausted with the candidates and the promises that they made during their campaigns. I no longer want to know about a single party or candidate, but I'm still going to vote," he said.

Astra said that his hopes were high in 2009, but as the five-year term draws to an end and many of the politicians' promises have yet to be fulfilled, he has become more skeptical about this year's legislative candidates.

"I am hoping for clean and honest candidates. Are there still any good people out there? Often they're good at the start, but who knows what will happen once they secure political office," Astra said.

"Many competent candidates offered promises five years ago. Today the backgrounds of the candidates vary... One of the candidates is a celebrity. God, I hope she knows what she's doing," Astra said, referring to Angel Lelga, a legislative candidate from the United Development Party (PPP).

Triyadi, an office employee, said he hoped this year's election could offer better legislative candidates so that they could bring positive changes to Indonesia.

"Given the poor performance shown by many in the House of Representatives and regional councils, I hope they are better this year. I want Indonesia to have competent politicians with good hearts," Triyadi said.

"Over the past five years, most of the parties only tried to work in their own interest; they only fought to shore up their political interests... It would be more helpful if they were focussed on helping the Indonesian people. Now, we want justice. Now, we the citizens, want figures with great will to accommodate the people's aspirations."

Iffah Adilah, a freelance consultant, said she was hoping for really hard-working candidates who were people-minded. "We don't need candidates who only want the prestige of being in the House," she said.

"There are candidates with no organizational experience for whom it seems that they are only interested in prestigious political titles. For them it's just about living a life that they can brag about."

But Iffah said experience of politics was not necessarily the most important requirement for a good politician. "Pramoedya Ananta Toer [a writer] once said that as long as you are willing to work hard and you care, a bachelor's degree or political background is not really needed," Iffah said.

"Every citizen has the right to become a legislator, but one must remember that once you make that call, you carry a heavy responsibility. You have to be responsible for the people who voted for you."

Crave for change

Sulastio, the director of the Indonesian Parliamentary Center (IPC), a think tank, said that 90 percent of this year's legislative candidates were those who were seeking another term in office.

"However, with their poor performance in the current term, will the people put their faith in them to bring about chance again? I don't think so," Sulastio said.

"With their experience serving in the House, you would expect that those candidates would have a good chance of getting re-elected. However, people nowadays have become more critical and skeptical and perhaps more likely to endorse a newcomer. With many new legislative candidates, we are hoping for refreshment. We are hoping that they will be able to bring positive changes to the nation."

Sulastio emphasized the need to upgrade the 2009 law that regulates the performance and working mechanism of institutions such as the House, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and the hundreds of regional legislatures, or DPRD, throughout the country.

"We need to bring discipline to legislative members. Upgrading the law is expected to improve the performance of the members and officials," Sulastio said. He emphasized that the candidates have to be equipped with sufficient political education to adapt to the system of government.

"What happened during this term was most of the elected candidates in 2009 spent two years learning how to operate inside the system. After that, they used the remainder of their term to 'work' on their policy agenda," he said.

"There is a wide variety of candidate-background. I hope that they can understand the systems of the House.

"The politicians must also understand that their performance is valued based on their success in birthing wise and useful policies. One thing that political parties must comprehend is that the duty of the lawmakers is to make policies, not to negotiate on profitable projects.

"I am hoping that the 'new' legislative candidates are not aiming to spread corruption for the next five years."

The analyst also noted that too much time had been wasted by lawmakers in plenary meetings, which were slowing the process of government.

"Regarding the performances of the lawmakers, I noted two points: they have only accomplished 30 percent of their duties [to pass bills into law], and most of this was done at the very end of their term; the second is that too much time is spent in discussion through special committees, and these are ineffective and useless," he said.

"The setting up of special committees has been pointless. They make so much buzz but it results in little action. Do they not realize that holding such discussions, eats into the state budget?" Sulastio said.

"The Bank Century case has been going on for years. But the discussions about it in the House never resulted in a single decision, a single conclusion. There has never been a significant decision that has resulted from the plenary meetings. This indicates the low performance and confused stance of members of the parliament," Sulastio said. "Hopefully the performances of legislative candidates can improve for the sake of Indonesia," he said.

Celebrity status

Despite the professional diversity of this year's legislative candidates Yunarto Wijaya, a political analyst at Charta Politika, said that judgements about a candidates' competence could not be based on their professional background.

"There are several politicians who were celebrities such as Rieke Diah Pitaloka, Nurul Arifin, Dedi Gumelar. They've all contributed to the policy-making process that has helped improve the country," he said.

Yunarto said that legislative candidates from a non-political background could adapt to their new work environment. "Those that I mentioned were able to adapt well," he said.

However the analyst also warned of celebrities using a political career simply as a means of boosting their public profile, and of parties nominating celebrities as candidates to achieve the same goal.

"Generally, less popular parties tend to engage celebrities in order to raise their popularity," Yunarto said. "On the other hand, political office is now viewed as a high status position. Even though the celebrities are already popular, a political position will enhance their prestige," he said. Celebrities with fading popularity who see politics as an opportunity to regain the spotlight, Yunarto added.

"What matters now is how the Indonesian people see this phenomenon in a critical way. Are we critical enough to see which politicians are fully committed to bring changes to the country and which ones are only being used by political parties as mannequins for the display window?" he said.

Yunarto said that the media has so far only written about celebrities involved in politics without highlighting how political parties were banking on their popularity to improve their electability. Yunarto stressed that whatever background prospective politicians came from it was important that they researched what their role was going to entail.

"Legislative candidates have to know which commission they want to join. That is enough indication that they know what they are doing," he said. "Legislative candidates should become a representative for their constituents to fight for their needs," he said. "The most important thing is that the candidates have a good track record."

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/want-politicians/