THE CONTRIBUTION OF DIRECT ELECTIONS FOR LOCAL LEADERS TO THE CORRUPTION IN INDONESIA: LESSONS LEARNED FROM INDONESIAN DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM
ABSTRACT: The paper discusses
direct elections of local government leaders that have contributed to the corruption
in Indonesia and focuses on the quality of electoral process. This study aimed
at identifying the contribution of direct elections of local leaders on corrupt
practices in Indonesia. It applied a quantitative research method and involved
85 provincial, district and city areas as samples in the Indonesian islands of
Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Papua. The study
proves that direct local elections have significant effects on corruption
committed by the heads of district government. Both process and quality of
direct local elections has jointly demonstrated a meaningful and significant
effect on the corruption by local leaders. Thus, the better quality and process
will immediately lower the corruption rate. In contrast, the lower quality and
process will contribute to a higher corruption rate. Partially, the influence
of the local election process is more powerful than the quality of direct local
elections, since direct local election process requires the government to spend
a vast amount of funding on the preparation, implementation, validation and the
inauguration of the elect local government leaders. This study only involved 85
areas that have organized direct local elections. A further study should be
expanded to more sample areas in order to collect more data that can complete the
current research findings.
Author: Gamawan Fauji
Journal Code: jppendidikangg140151
