The House of Representatives, or the House of Political Parties?

By Mhd. Fadly Siregar, S.H.

26 Oct 2024 10:11 WIB 26 October 2024 10:11 WIB 5 minutes reading time: 5 minutes 47 read

This article discusses the reality of the bias of members of the DPR in Indonesia and the political behavior of parties

The House of Representatives, or the House of Political Parties?

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Gabung Membership

Members of the DPR RI as individuals elected by the people, should act and behave based on the aspirations and interests of the people, not based on the position and interests of their party. If this is not possible, or too ideal to become a reality, then legal rules must accommodate the registration of candidates for members of the DPR RI through independent channels, so that members of the DPR RI are free from elements of the interests of the supporting party.

As another example, we can witness in the 2024 presidential election yesterday, when PKS nominated Anies Baswedan, who we all know is a representation of the anti-government in power or anti status quo, PKS cadres who are candidates for members of the DPR are also united in voicing change and against the policies of the government in power. The constituents (voters) of members of the DPR RI from the PKS party certainly chose PKS cadres to represent them in parliament to represent the opposition to the government. However, what happened in the end was that PKS joined (coalition) with the elected President who we all know is an extension of the previous government. The votes collected by PKS legislative candidates which came from anti aspirations status quo were not heeded at all. Members of the DPR RI who were elected from PKS whose constituents hoped they would be the mouthpiece of the opposition to the government, instead joined the government leaving the voices of their constituents.

In this example, we are not talking about right or wrong, the event above is just an example that there is no such thing as the interests of the people as often echoed by politicians. In reality, they only act based on their own interests and those of their party. The people are only used as stepping stones so that they are elected as people's representatives, when they are already “inside”, they act based on the interests of the party and forget the people.

We can see the results of this inconsistency of members of the DPR in various surveys of the level of public trust in the institution. The DPR institution always occupies the bottom rank. Like the survey released by the Indikator Survey Institute in January 2024, out of 11 institutions, the DPR is in the second lowest rank, namely rank 10, and political parties are in the lowest position.

Members of the House of Representatives, as individuals elected by the people, should act and behave based on the interests of their constituents. Members of the House of Representatives are not representatives of political parties, but representatives of the people. The people are the holders of the highest power, in accordance with the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia Article 1 paragraph (2). The House of Representatives as a representation institution of the people should act and behave based on the interests of the people, not other interests.