Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – Amid the public anger and harsh criticism, the Great Indonesia Movement Party, or Gerindra, defended the House of Representatives' decision to end direct regional elections, calling it a victory for Indonesians.
"The regional elections, through the regional council, is very democratic because it is in line with the state ideology Pancasila and the mandate of the 1945 constitution, which means the decision taken by the House of Representatives was correct," Gerindra deputy chairman Fadli Zon said on Friday.
"This is a victory of Pancasila democracy, this is also a victory for the people," he added.
Lawmakers early on Friday voted 226-135 in favor of the bill, but almost all members of the Democratic Party – who hold the largest number of seats by a party – had walked out after their set of proposals on the voting process was rejected. Twenty-two Gerindra legislators voted for the bill, while none opposed or abstained.
With the indirect regional elections, Fadli said, people would no longer be divided by conflict. He said that indirect elections would also speed up regional development, which has been hampered by regional leaders being too fixated on engaging in corruption to earn back the money they spent for their costly election campaigns.
"The era of the liberal democracy, in which the regional leaders could be chosen by vote buying, is over," he said.
Fadli said that by giving the authority to the regional legislative councils (DPRD) to elect regional leaders, the mechanism to monitor vote buying would be easier. "Anyone who takes bribes will be easily detected so that democracy can survive," he said.