“C’mon, let me have a poke.”
Chaos. The first legislative session at the DPR was one slap away from turning into an all out physical brawl. While it’s understandable to disagree in a democracy, it’s clear these so-called representatives of the people are only interested in representing their own, or their respective parties’, needs.
The whole affair, which began on Wednesday morning and carried on through to the early hours of Thursday, was so embarrassing that Indonesians vented their frustrations on social media and thus #WakilRakyatKampungan was born.
There was no elegance in the shouting matches, constant interruptions, and yes, you guessed it, even more walk outs, that marred the first day of these politicians at the DPR.
(Even village people aren’t as embarrassing as our representatives)
(Extraordinary legislative session, extraordinarily disgusting!)
(How can the voice of the PEOPLE be heard? Do WE want to be lied to all the time? Any suggestions?)
Though much of the public’s frustrations are directed towards Prabowo’s power-hungry Merah Putih coalition, many who took to Twitter agree that the current crop of legislators, no matter what side of the fence they’re on, are not fit to represent the people. And when the frustrations of the people fall on deaf ears, we get creative and the memes surface.
All bow before Emperor Prabowo and his cronies
After all is said and done, yesterday was a huge victory for the Merah Putih coalition. They managed to install Golkar politician Setya Novanto as the Speaker of the House with four deputies from within the coalition (one of them, Agus Hermanto, is from the Demokrat Party, so we know which side the Demokrats are on, for now).
So who is this Setya Novanto fellow?
The representative of Nusa Tenggara Timur II, Setya Novanto is quite the controversial character. He has been on the KPK’s radar for some time. According to Kompas.com, Setya has been interrogated as a witness by the KPK in several high-profile corruption cases.
Surely it would save the DPR all a lot of trouble if they elected a ‘clean’ (hah!) Speaker of the House? We don’t really want to go through this ordeal again when Setya Novanto is behind bars.
What happened to the losers? Could the PDI-P and the Indonesia Hebat coalition remove the #WakilRakyatKampungan tag by admitting defeat gracefully? No, of course they have to moan about the whole thing.
PDI-P politician Puan Maharani smelled foul play when she thought her coalition was being silenced on the floor. “It was as if all the microphones were switched off. We felt like our opinions weren’t being heard and were worthless,” said Puan Maharani of the legislative session. At least now she knows what it’s like for the common people.
Just like the Demokrats before them, the PDI-P too sulked and walked out of the session when things didn’t go according to plan. Now we’re left with a DPR led by the Merah Putih coalition going against Jokowi’s government for the next five years. If this means that neither is going to be productive, at least we can have fun watching the two tear each other to shreds.
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