It’s destiny that Javanese rule Indonesia

If the political world of Indonesia ruled by Javanese it’s a normal. The number of people of the islands Java and Madura is 50% of Indonesian population. And the form of boundary constituencies determined by electoral law is according to the number of population in respective region or province.

We can see that in the Attachment of the Law no.8 year 2012 about Election of DPR, DPD and DPRD announced in May 2012. In upcoming Election 2014, out of 560 parliament member, Sumatera will be  represented by 120 members, Java 306, Bali, NTB and NTT, 32, Kalimantan 35, Sulawesi 47, Maluku and Papua 20.

It’s known since long time that the population in Java and Madura is very dense. In order to avoid the fairness of representativeness in parliament of some province due the small number of population, there is a policy that every province should have a representative in the Parliament, even though, the population is not enough to follow the formula in forming a constituency. In Election 2014, any province will be represented by minimum 3 parliament members. We can see that policy in the Article 22 Section (2) the Law no. 8/2012.

My recommendation solution from me is the other provinces should have and add many more population, if they want to have many more members in parliament.

1. Having more babies (ooopss, with this way Indonesian people will be ‘blasted’) and minimizing the death of babies and mothers.

2. Moving some people who live in Java into other provinces. The province can call their native people who have education and have some working experience in Java or even abroad to work and develop their own hometown.

3. Inviting non native people who live in Java. To invite people, you should have something to provide. Explore your potential sources in your own provinces, that’s your “bait”.  

Indonesia is not only Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Jogja, Medan, and Makassar. What ex Governor of Gorontalo, Mr. Fadel Muhammad, was great. He did SWOT to find the strength of Gorontalo, and he knew it : CORN. That’s why his policies was to develop the industry of corn from the start until the end. Unfortunately, I haven’t checked the continuity of his policies after he didn’t sit as Governor again.   

Germany is a developed country, and the strength of the economy is not only in the big cities that Indonesians know so far. Berlin has special magnet to urbanization as the capital, of course. However, the other cities, even the small ones have their own magnet.

Frankfurt is the capital of finance industry. All world-wide famous financial institutions have their main representation office here. Hamburg is known as one of the busiest haven in the world, and Hamburg is known as ‚Silicon of Valley‘ of Germany. This is one of the reasons, why our ex-President, Mr. Habibie, lives in Hamburg, because it is his community as researcher and scholar on high-technology.



Manufacture of Siemens in Erlangen.
Picture : courtessy of Siemens



Who doesn’t know Siemens? The manufactures of Siemens located in small cities that never heard by Indonesians. And so do the auto manufactures like Opel and BMW. Braunschweig is a city of aircraft industry.

Germany still has urbanization, but it can be pressed to be low.  It’s almost similar, working in the small cities and in the big cities thanks to the technology and the infra structure.

Thailand has good enough infra structure compared Indonesia. In 2011, when I observed the parliamentary election there, I went through the cities and villages in 4 provinces in southern Thailand (Trang, Songkhla, Pattalung and Satun) to interview as many as possible election stakeholders and to attend the campaign. The streets are wide, long and smooth even in the villages. It makes easier for the farmers (the most occupation of southern Thais) to sell their harvest, to go to the bigger cities to entertain themselves and family. Electricity, laptop and internet is common there.    
Indonesia should provide the facilities like that, to prevent the urbanization from villages to cities, from other provinces and islands into Java island.

4. This is an extreme solution from me. Marry a Javanese or someone who live in Java island and take him or her to your own hometown.  Don’t do the opposite; it is you who move to Java island, because this island is already full of people, ha ha ha.

The author is the Head of Foreign Affairs Dept. of KIPP Indonesia (Komite Independen Pemantau Pemilu). She is an International Election Observer in some countries in Asian Region so far, including Thailand parliamentary election, 3rd July 2011.