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การประชุมวิชาการสถาบันพระปกเกล้า 131
ครั้งที่ 20 ประจำาปี 2561
ประชาธิปไตยไทย: ก้าวย่างเพื่อการพัฒนา

The centralized system developed by the New Order survived 32 years of President

Soeharto’s rule. The system was built with strong support from 3 forces, namely ABRI (Angkatan
Bersenjata Republik Indonesia, military), Bureaucracy and Golkar (Golongan Karya, Functional

Group). The role of ABRI was not involved in the election, but was always behind the support
of Soeharto’s leadership. The role of the bureaucracy was very strong because it was required

to have a single loyalty to Soeharto who was the Board of Trustees of the ruling party, namely
Golkar. Meanwhile, Golkar, which was a party that always won in elections, never called itself

a political party. When the government ran floating mass politics, all political parties were
prohibited from having branch offices under the district so that citizens were not politicized.

Citizens only knew politics during elections that took place every 5 years. However, Golkar by
releasing attributes as a political party could freely enter various community organizations to

seek broad support.

Through Law No. 22/1999, the model of regional head elections changed significantly.
The role of the Central Government is reduced and the role of the region is strengthened.

The position of the DPRD to determine the regional head becomes very strong. The regent/
mayor and the governor are elected by their respective DPRD and the decision is final at the

DPRD level.

The determination of regional leadership regulated in article 40 of Law

No. 22 of 1999: Paragraph (1) The selection of regional heads and deputy regional
heads shall be carried out directly, freely, confidentially, honestly and fairly;

Paragraph (2) Each DPRD member can vote for a pair of candidates for regional
heads and candidates for deputy regional heads of candidate pairs that have

been determined by the DPRD chairmen, as referred to in Article 37 paragraph
(4); Paragraph (3) The candidate pairs of regional heads and candidates for deputy

regional heads who get the most votes in the election, as referred to in paragraph
(2), are stipulated as regional heads and deputy regional heads by the DPRD and

approved by the President.

In this period, the opportunity to become a regent or governor is no longer limited to
those who have a military background or senior bureaucrats, but are very open. NGO activists,