The Minister of Home Affairs said that many regional heads were OTT because of recruitment problems.

Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian/screen capture

JAKARTA - Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) Tito Karnavian assessed that many regional heads were affected by the hand-catching operation (OTT) related to corruption because one of them was caused by the recruitment problems that have been implemented.

He explained that until now, regional heads were elected by the direct regional head election (pilkada) system by the people. This means, he said, there are systematic problems related to direct elections.

"Maybe it has something to do with the link to the direct pilkada recruitment mechanism which turns out not to guarantee that there is a leader who produces good leaders? There are good leaders, there are also those like this (affected by OTT)," said Tito as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, April 13.

The Minister of Home Affairs did not deny that the mechanism of the election directly had a positive impact, but there were also negative impacts. With the fact that political costs are expensive, it does not guarantee that the elected regional heads are good people.

According to him, the phenomenon of many regional heads who are entangled in corruption cases has experienced problems regarding welfare, morality, and integrity.

Although the latest case is the Tulungagung Regent Gatut Sunu Wibowo who was involved in the case of corruption in extortion against officials, according to him, the problem is not just about the case by case. Because, he said, the phenomenon of corruption in regional heads occurred several times in a short time.

"There is a basic problem. Maybe one of them is the wrong recruitment mechanism that has been used, they are all the result of direct elections," he said.