DPD Chairman: The Election Law Is A Great Design For Oligarchy To Rule The State

JAKARTA - Chairman of the DPD RI AA La Nyalla Mahmud Mattalitti was the keynote speaker at a seminar and focus group discussion (FGD) entitled The Idea for Amendment V to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia: Eliminating the Threshold for Presidential Candidates and Opening Individual Presidential Candidates at Airlangga University, Surabaya, East Java, Tuesday June 8th.

"Why do I come to campuses for discussions? Maybe someone asks what is the matter with the chairman of the DPD RI talking about the constitution, instead of the DPD RI being a regional representative who must focus on fighting for regional interests?

According to the East Java senator, since being sworn in as chairman of the DPD RI in October 2019, he decided to go directly to the regions to see and hear the aspirations and problems faced by the regions.

To date, La Nyalla has traveled to all 32 provinces in Indonesia, only two less, namely West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan.

"From that trip, I concluded that almost all problems in this area are the same, ranging from the problem of depleted regional natural resources to poverty which is far from independent. It turns out that the root of the problem is upstream, not downstream," he said.

The former chairman of PSSI said that the root of the problem upstream was social injustice. Whereas social justice is the essential goal of the birth of this country as aspired by the founders of the nation and became the ultimate precept of Pancasila.

"This happens because of the power of capital and capital from a few people to control and control power," said La Nyalla.

According to La Nyalla, the law and the constitution have opened room for actions to control and drain the country's wealth. So he said, improvements or corrections to it must be done upstream, not downstream.

"Not busy criticizing the government or the president. Because the president only implements the constitution and laws and regulations. Even though the president and the DPR make laws, the president can even issue regulations in lieu of laws," he said.

"That's why I come to campuses to raise political awareness, to ignite the thoughts of educated people and scholars so that the same spiritual atmosphere is created, namely to think about how Indonesia will be better in the future, how Indonesia can become a country like the founders of the nation aspired to be. by asking our conscience whether the direction of this nation's journey is getting closer to what it aspires to or is getting further away from the ideals contained in the values of Pancasila and the preamble of the 1945 Constitution," he continued.

The alumnus of Universitas Brawijaya Malang also explained two problems of democracy that were being experienced by the nation. First, the presidential nomination threshold or Presidential Threshold. Second, the opportunity for individual presidential candidates or non-political parties.

Where, in the constitution, there is no presidential nomination threshold, there is a presidential election threshold to balance popularity with the principle of wider and spread representation. As stipulated in the constitution as a result of the amendments to Article 6a paragraphs 3 and 4.

"That's why in the constitution as a result of the amendments to Article 6a paragraph 3, it is written that the pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates who get more than 50 percent of the total votes in the general election with at least 20 percent of the votes in each province spread over half the number of provinces in Indonesia was sworn in as president and vice president," he explained.

Meanwhile, paragraph 4 states that the two pairs of candidates who get the first and second most votes in the general election are directly elected by the people and the elected pairs with the most votes are inaugurated as president and vice president.

"Paragraphs 3 and 4 clearly talk about the electability threshold, not candidacy, while the nomination for the constitution is only the result of amendments. It is clear that there is no threshold because Article 6a paragraph 2 states that pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates are proposed by political parties or coalition of political parties participating in the general election before the general election, the norm is that every political party participating in the election can nominate a presidential and vice-presidential candidate pair, and the nomination is submitted before it is carried out. But then an election law is born which regulates the nomination threshold, namely the law 7 of 2017 concerning elections which is a change from Law No. 2 of 2008,"

"In the law, Article 222 states that candidate pairs are proposed by political parties or a combination of political parties participating in the election who meet the requirements for obtaining seats of at least 20 percent of the total number of seats in the DPR or 25 percent of nationally valid votes in the previous election for DPR members," said La Nyalla. .

In addition to giving a threshold whose figure comes from nowhere, and determined by whom, in the article there is also a sentence in the previous election for members of the DPR.

Which then makes the composition of party votes nationally or DPR seats taken from the old composition or the previous 5 year period. It is clear that the article in the election law is not the result of Article 6a of the amended Constitution, because that article does not have a nomination threshold.

"It's a strange article that violates the basic law, especially when it uses a stale vote base," said the man who was born in Jakarta on May 10, 1959.

So, continued the former KPSI chairman, as long as this law is in effect, the upcoming 2024 presidential election, in addition to still using the nomination threshold, also uses the vote base of the 2019 voter. Even though in 2024 there may be new candidates who pass KPU verification and are set to become election participants.

"Then can they not nominate a presidential and vice presidential candidate? Even though the constitutional mandate clearly gives the bearer rights to political parties participating in the election," asked La Nyalla.

So, he added, the election law in article 222 can be concluded as a grand design of the oligarchy to control the country as a whole.

"So that the state serves the goal of the oligarchs to strengthen the accumulation of wealth, if necessary, the state must be a servant to the oligarchs," said La Nyalla Mattalitti.