Page 140 - kpi20440

KPI Congress 20th
140
2018
Thai Democracy on the Move

Some Challenges of Decentralisation and Democracy

After running for 20 years, decentralisation experienced various challenges. First,
democracy that has developed over the past 20 years has brought positive and negative

changes. The positive side is that citizens have complete freedom to express their opinions
that are different from the authoritarian era of Soeharto. However, the freedom held by citizens

is often considered an unlimited arena. They do not realise that in the freedom they have
there is the right of others that cannot be violated. The period of 1966-1998 which was very

authoritarian had become very democratic. Public space to criticize government policies and
official behavior is very wide open. However, this openness often goes too far. The emerging

behavior is no longer just freedom to criticize policies issued by the government, but also
blaspheming and insulting officials without paying attention to ethics at all (Merdeka.com,

February 23, 2017) . This often hampers the running of government and law enforcement.
3
In the name of democracy, law enforcement officials are afraid to take action.

Second, direct elections for both districts and provinces have brought enormous costs.

The candidates must spend a lot of money to finance the campaign either to become regents/
mayors, governors or DPRD members. As a result, these expensive investments must generate

profits during a 5-year position. Unfortunately, official income as regent/mayor, governor or
DPRD member is not comparable to the money that has been spent. Thus, it is not uncommon

for them to commit acts of corruption that violate the law. From the existing records, there
are more than 50 percent of regents/mayors and governors who have been caught due to

corruption. In 2004-2017 there were 392 regional heads involved in various crimes, the largest
number of corruption was 313 cases. The figure, as many as 41 of the 45 DPRD members in

the city of Malang was ensnared by a corruption case handled by the Corruption Eradication
Commission (KPK, Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi). As a result, the governmental activities in

Malang City was threatened with total paralysis (regional.kompas.com, September 4, 2018) .
4
เอกสารประกอบการประชุมกลุ่มย่อยที่ 3 3 https://www.merdeka.com/peristiwa/akbar-tanjung-sebut-demokrasi-indonesia-kebablasan.

html, accessed on October 1, 2018
https://regional.kompas.com/read/2018/09/04/15100021/kasus-korupsi-massal-di-dprd-kota-
4
malang-ini-sejumlah-faktanya, accessed on October 1, 2018