Political participation in a multi-ethnic society: local governorate elections in Jakarta, 2007

Abstract

This study analyses the political participation of residents in Jakarta, with particular reference to the 2007 local direct governorate elections. It examines the respondents’ orientation to politics and their levels of political participation. The political reform that took place in 1998 and brought about the downfall of Suharto’s regime changed the nature of electoral rules and trends in the Indonesian electoral politics. One striking feature of these trends is the adoption of a direct election system for the government heads at all levels of governance, from the President to mayors and regents. On 23 July 2007, the Constitutional Court passed a judicial review of the Law Number 32 of 2004 on Regional Autonomy in which independent candidates were allowed to exercise their political rights to be elected as heads of regional governments. The 2007 election for the local government in Jakarta voted a new government to administer the city until 2012. For the first time, a large number of the population of Jakarta took part in the election process. The elections for the local government are the starting point for the type of political participation emerging in Jakarta. The study is based upon a questionnaire survey. The return rate of 77.3 per cent (309 out of 400 of the questionnaires), considering the political sensitivity in Jakarta, is encouraging. The study finds that the respondents are in the medium level of politics, as 73.8 per cent of them cast their votes in the first ever Jakarta local governorate elections. They participate in politics, by voting, campaigning, and discussing but not on a very active basis. Age, marital status, ethnicity, income and occupation also play important roles in determining participation in politics. However, the study concludes that gender and education have negative relationship to political participation in Jakarta.