CIDISS. The holding of the 2019 democratic party has been held. People are competing to win candidates who are carrying it and hope that their choice is the right choice and able to have a positive impact on the region they lead. However, maintaining confidence in one’s choices is not easy because this is very dependent on the issues that develop and how the prospective regional head behaves to the community.
One issue that is currently developing is the large number of regional heads who are indicated to be involved in a number of corruption cases. Based on the news, Cirebon Regent Sunjaya Purwadi Sastra became head of the 100th region that was arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission since the institution was established in 2002. The high number of regional corruption cases is based on high political costs, one of which is to finance campaigns. According to the Coordinator of the Political Corruption Division of Indonesia Corruption Watch, Donal Fariz said, 3 the corruption mode of the regional head was cheating in the procurement of goods and services, buying and selling positions, as well as expensive election costs with the biggest cost to get party support.
The high level of corruption cases by regional heads is also based on weak supervision in the regions so that regional heads are easily tempted to commit corruption. The circulation of this issue is quite dangerous for the survival of democracy in Indonesia because it is easily politicized by certain parties, so the results of the general election are not democratic. For the community, the circulation of this issue is vulnerable to reduce public trust in the results of a legitimate and accountable general election. Furthermore, it is feared that this will encourage people not to participate in voting and increase the number of abstentions.
Apart from that, it needs to be believed that the government has worked hard in addressing this matter, as evidenced by the increasing number of regional heads who were arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission. The community is expected to entrust the settlement of this problem to the government and continue to actively participate in general elections in order to realize honest, fair and transparent elections. Indonesia is there to improve the welfare of its people, and on the contrary the active role of the community determines Indonesia’s success in the welfare of its people.
By: Mirwan Achmad*)