THE COMPARISON ON ELECTION SYSTEM AND PROCESS BETWEEN INDONESIA AND MALAYSIA

Barisan Nasional supporters marched along the road during GE13

General Election or the Malaysians called it as PRU (Pilihan Raya Umum) has been done for 13 times in Malaysia and only 2 who compete. All of it won by Barisan Nasional, the strongest party consist of UMNO, MCA, MIC, and PERKASA. The opponent is the opposition party or in Malay we called it Party Pembangkang, consist of DAP, PKR, and PAS. Elections or PRU happened once in 5 years, Malaysia had done 13 elections. During the election there are hundreds of people compete for seats, either in Parliamentery seats or states seats. Each states has its own leader, can be BN or PR (depends who get the majority vote in the state), for example, Lim Kit Siang who represent DAP which is under the opposition party gets majority votes from the people in Gelang Patah, means Gelang Patah is under Pakatan Rakyat or the opposition. The party who won most seats would be entitled to select their leader to become the prime minister.  The election process would be like this, each party would be given chances to promote their vision and mission or also known as manifesto to public on each state. Each people who runs for parliamentary or state seats would also be given a chance to talk to public in state where they compete, for the one who runs for prime minister, they have to go state by state to ensure that the people vote them by convince them with their program for the next 5 years. Conflicts happened between both party with different perception and ways of thinking. Not only them, conflict also happened between the two political parties supporters and even sometimes causes riot. This happened because of misunderstanding and provoked by irresponsible group of people who involved in dirty ways to distrupt the election. Barisan Nasional won the majority votes means Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak keep his position as the Prime Minister of Malaysia for the next 5 years.

Opposition supporters marched along the road during GE13

Barisan Nasional won the GE13

In Indonesia, general election also happens once in five years. We called it Pemilu (Pemilihan Umum) for cabinet seats and Pilkada (Pemilihan Kepala Daerah) for legislative seats. Hundred of people from different parties compete for cabinet seats (whom we called it as MPR (Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat) and DPR (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat)) and legislative seats (whom we called it as DPRD (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah) and DPD (Dewan Perwakilan Daerah). KPU (Komisi Pemilihan Umum) is the one who in charge in every election. They are the one who decide which party can compete in the election by looking at each party’s initial verification, administrative verification, and verification of factual. Each person would be chosen as governor and lieutenant governor and their cabinet for each province, Mayor and Deputy Mayor with their cabinet for each city, and President and Vice President with their cabinet for country. Indonesia had done 10 elections since 1955. Partai Golkar had won 5 elections and elected Suharto, which made him the president of Indonesia for 32 years until his downfall in 1998.  There are 34 parties who competed for the next election, which is in 2014, but only 10 has been nominated as the next candidates for election. The other 24 parties are not eligible to compete because they failed to pass the initial verification, administrative verification, and verification of factual. 

The 10 political party who will compete on next year election

Last election, which was happened back in 2009, Demokrat won the majority votes for presidential election and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono kept his throne. During the campaign days, each candidates given time and chance to talk to public about the program for the next five years and find ways to win the public’s heart. Back in 2009, conflicts also happened in Indonesia between political parties with their different perceptions and ways of thinking. So far the campaign process is almost the same with Malaysia General Election. In terms of the process and regulations, minimum age to be a voter is 17, each voter have to go back to their hometown, and when the election days come, there will be a stand in each housing area for people to vote. The way they vote is to make a hole using index finger on each candidate’s photo. There will be 5 and more private spots to vote in one stand. They are also using the ink as a sign that they already vote, normally the voter will put his index finger unto a bottle of ink that provided and then go to a small room at the back to vote. Normally, finger food and mineral water are provided on each stand. 

the small rooms for voting

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Demokrat leader during Presidential Campaign in Gelora Bung Karno Stadium 2009

This year election, for the campaign, each party will be given 4 months. The voting day will be on 9 May 2014, one day for both presidential and legislative election.

So basically the election process are the same but only in terms of government style that make the difference on the election process, Indonesia is a republic country with presidential system, which is also almost the same with the United States.