Legal Literacy - We have successfully built perhaps the most complex and expensive democratic procedure in the world, only to watch the winners take turns wearing orange vests. This is the greatest irony in two decades of our local democratic journey: the regional elections feel increasingly "democratic" procedurally, but the quality of leadership they produce is often stagnant, if not sharply declining.

We celebrate the right to vote with great fanfare, but at the same time, we ignore the bitter reality that the sovereignty we are proud of is often sold out in the electoral black market long before the dawn of polling.

Every time this five-year cycle approaches, we are again trapped in an outdated debate: should we return to elections through the Regional People's Representative Council (DPRD) or maintain the exhausting direct elections? Unfortunately, this debate often becomes a dead end because we are too busy arguing about "who votes", that we forget to question "how power is controlled" and "what are the real results for citizens" who pay dearly for the party with their taxes.

Direct Elections and the Decline in the Quality of Local Democracy

The fundamental concern in our current democratic practice is the birth of what I call "Fetishism of Democratic Procedure". We have sanctified the ballot box as if it were a sacred object that would automatically radiate…