Ideas To Raise A Parliamentary Threshold Worth Considering

Parliament building (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the NasDem Party, Surya Paloh, has proposed an increase in the parliamentary threshold from four percent to seven percent.

He said that when he met the General Chairman of the Golkar Party, Airlangga Hartarto, at the Golkar DPP office some time ago. The Golkar Party also agreed with the proposal.

Political observer Hendri Satrio said it would be a good idea if his enthusiasm was to simplify political parties in Indonesia. Because, he considered, there were too many political parties in Indonesia. In the 2019 Election, there were 16 parties declared by the General Election Commission (KPU) to take part in the election.

"This is a good suggestion, if indeed the spirit is to reduce the existence of political parties or simplify political parties, that is a good idea. In fact, I think it should be followed by similarities and similarities with those in the regions," said Hendri when contacted by VOI via text message, Friday, March 13th.

In addition, Hendri said, if you want to raise the parliamentary threshold, it should be accompanied by a decrease in the presidential or presidential nomination threshold to zero percent. The goal is to increase the number of presidential candidates from parties that have been selected with the parliamentary threshold.

Even if there is resistance from small parties that currently do not reach the parliamentary threshold such as the Hanura Party, the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI), the Berkarya Party, the Garuda Party, and Perindo, for Hendri it is not a problem. For Hendri, this is a form of competition that must be run.

"So in my opinion, the fewer parties, the better the people," he said.

Hendri explained, according to him, zero percent of the presidential threshold would make more presidential candidates compete in the election. So, there will no longer be a vote like the 2014 presidential election and the 2019 presidential election. According to him, with a zero percent threshold, parties will not arbitrarily propose people to become president. Given the political costs in this country are so expensive.

"But at least we are forced to choose two more candidates and that ultimately divides us and ends up going nowhere," he said.

The proposals from the Golkar Party and the NasDem Party received various responses from the parties in the DPR. Deputy Chairman of the Gerindra Party, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, said that his party has yet to make any decisions regarding this discourse. However, looking at the election results in 2014 and 2019, his party will have no problem when the parliamentary threshold becomes 7 percent.

In the 2014 Legislative Election, the party made by Prabowo Subianto received 14,760,371 votes or 11.81 percent of the votes and was ranked third nationally.

This ranking went up in the 2019 Pileg. In that year, this party was ranked second nationally with a national score of 17,594,839 or 12.57 percent of the vote.

"I think if Gerindra, the seven percent threshold in two elections can be exceeded. But in democracy, we consider various aspects, there are parties that passed four percent yesterday. But there are voters who we certainly cannot ignore," said Dasco, adding , the discourse on this threshold will be discussed holding a party congress whose schedule has not yet been determined.

Meanwhile, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has other options even though it agrees if the parliamentary threshold is increased from before.

"We agree to be raised, but if seven percent will be too many people who are not represented and if the people are not represented, the name of the DPR, the People's Representative Council, is not correct," said Deputy Chairperson of the PKS DPP Syuro Council Hidayat Nur Wahid.

"Never mind an increase of seven percent, six percent is still difficult," he added.

Moreover, if you look at the 2019 Pileg, only three parties were able to win votes above 7 percent. While the rest is under seven percent. "So in my opinion, the three and four parties do not represent the reality of political grouping in society."

Instead of seven percent, PKS agreed that this increase was only five percent or one point from the previous percentage. So that the representation in the DPR will be more.

In line with PKS, PDI Perjuangan which is the ruling party in the DPR also agreed to increase the parliamentary threshold to five percent. They have made this decision unanimously, after the V PDIP Congress in Bali in 2019 and the previous PDIP National Working Meeting in Jakarta 2020.

"In accordance with a congressional decision that was strengthened in the National Working Meeting, PDIP proposed 5 percent PT, but levels down," said the PDIP Secretary General in a written statement as quoted on Friday, March 13.

As for the purpose of the parliamentary threshold of five percent but going downwards is for the DPR RI five percent, the Provincial DPRD four percent, and three percent for the City DPRD.

However, Hasto said that the PDIP still pays attention to and appreciates the Golkar Party and the Nasdem Party which want to increase the PT figure to 7 percent. "Because Golkar and Nasdem proposed 7 percent, we also have to pay attention to deliberations to build a healthier democracy," he explained.

Especially in an era of many political parties like today, a simple multiparty is also needed. "This is in order to strengthen the presidential system itself."