CHAPTHER I

CHAPTHER I

INTRODUCTION

The researcher concern more on a problem that mushroomed in the society. It also expected that the research results could be used as a milestone for someone’s assessment of something. Here the author sees that the Indonesian political trend is increasingly slipping due to the political stakeholders not giving their whole soul and effort to realize better social welfare. In fact, many members of political parties or even legislative councils are enthroned to fulfill certain goals for some interest groups.

This phenomenon is happening because someone does something not in accordance with the portion and the capacity. For example, a sick person should be referred to see the doctor to diagnose which type of illness the person possesses and find an appropriate medicine to cure the disease and not to see the carpenter. If people want to make a cupboard, they should go to a carpenter, not a veterinarian. In short, everything must be handled by their respective expert because humans have their limitations.

Interestingly, celebrities in Indonesia which in its nature as a public figure whose job is to entertain the public now flocked into politics. It is well known that everything about politics is crucial because it will change all the policies or even the laws in the country from that stage. So, this vital position must hand on the right people who have the best knowledge and experiences in this field of profession. Not everyone can jump easily to this thing.

The next consideration that the researcher always think about Indonesians voters’ attitude toward the candidate in the electoral process. It is also an undeniable fact that Indonesia can be considered as a country with a low level of education awareness. Not all citizens are wise to choose and elect the candidate. In nature, a person will choose whomever he likes without thinking about how his performance will become later when he has been elected and crowned as the people’s representative.

For those reasons aforementioned above, the researcher asks the reader to think critically that celebrity involvement in the Indonesian legislative body is not a trivial thing to be ignored. This phenomenon needs to be assessed. It might be specific purposes that were intended by some group for some private interest. The most logical reason we need to be aware of is how the celebrity can gain a billion rupiah, choose to leave the world of celebrity and turn into a legislative member?

BACKGROUND

Indonesia is a constitutional state in the form of a unitary government that adopted a republic and a presidential system of government with a parliamentary in nature. Indonesia does not adopt a system of separation of powers but the distribution of power. Although most of the population is Muslim, Indonesia is not an Islamic state. The executive is led by a president who is the head of state and head of government. In carrying out his duties, the president is assisted by a vice president as a presidential aide whose position is above the ministers and the president’s supervisor. Legislative power is divided between two chambers in the People’s Consultative Assembly/ Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat (MPR) and the People’s Representative Council/ Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR) and Regional Representative. Council/ Dewan Perwakilan Daerah (DPD) as the branch of DPR. The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court/ Mahkamah Agung (MA) and a Constitutional Court/ Mahkamah Konstitusi (MK) which jointly holds judicial authority. Inspective power is controlled by the Supreme Audit Board which has representatives in every province and district or city in the entire territory of the Republic of Indonesia (Fatwa, 2009).

With a representative democratic system in Indonesia, the people agree to leave the country’s management on the shoulders of the DPR members. Important decisions, including drafting a constitution, taken by the representatives of the people will greatly determine the future of the nation. Therefore, the people’s representatives should be taken from the best souls of this nation. Everyone from any background can participate in politics in Indonesia directly, including people from celebrity backgrounds.

Nowadays, the Indonesian political stage is never devoid of the frenetic dynamics. Celebrity politics is increasingly being discussed and becomes an endless hot issue in mass media coverage, both printed and electronic media. According to the Indonesian dictionary/ Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI), celebrity means a famous people. In particular term, celebrity is someone who has a distinctive profile that is always reported by the media through television, instagram, twitter, youtube, and others. Moreover, their popularity can create public interest. In most cases, celebrity is expected to be rich (Fame and fortune), close to the glamorous and luxury things. The popularity very prominent so it can be known by the public quickly. Usually, a celebrity will reach the peak of his career in entertainment (Film, music and sports) in several periods. Furthermore, most importantly, he will become an icon in the industry that they are concerned with.

The involvement of celebrities in politics, especially in political parties, has been ongoing since the New Order era until the Post-New Order era. However, in the first reign, celebrities’ involvement was very limited because of the political ideology in Indonesia at that time was an authoritarian system. So, what happens is, those celebrities who are jumping in the electoral process only as a decoration or instrument to attract the public interest. In fact, they are still an entertainer and only limited to the interests of the celebrities to maintain their status and profession so that the authorities let them live.

Under the rule of the New Order, the government used a unicameral system known as the one-room system (Fatwa, 2009, p. 316). MPR has the authority as the highest state institution, the membership consists of members of the DPR, Regional Envoys and Group Delegates. In this context, celebrities – artists become one of the delegates from the artist and cultural circles. Not unlike the case with other group representatives such as academics, politicians, soldiers or business people. The group’s envoy was only a cover for accommodation made by the Suharto regime. The DPR will approve the legislative process proposed by the government. There is no need to be reliable as a legislator because basically, the ratification and enactment of a law are not determined by them. In the New Order context, it does not matter whether artists who represent the people will bring the people’s voices, or at least the interests of the artists. Their existence is no more than a display window of “as if democracy” exhibited by the New Order.

Since the New Order era, artists have been members of the MPR and DPR, just name Yoseano Waas who is an Indonesian supporting film actor and active in Association of Indonesian Film Artists/ Persatuan Artis Film Indonesia (PARFI) as well as former MPR members, in addition, there was also Rhoma Irama who become as one of the most important mascot of the United Development Party/ Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (PPP) and veteran actor Sophan Sophiaan. However, when conditions changed relatively after Suharto fell by the pro-reform movement in May 1998, especially before and after the 1999 elections, the celebrities’ awareness began to change from political entertainers to become political activists to carry out more political roles.

The fall of the Soeharto regime in 1998 brought many changes in everything, especially in the government and political system in Indonesia. Amendment to the 1945 Constitution is one product of the reform period. Changes in the parliamentary system from unicameral to bicameral helped to colour the euphoria of democracy. Bicameral or borrowing the term Moh. Yamin as “twin legislative system” is a government practice that uses two chambers. The use of bicameral systems is usually driven by the consideration that one room can compensate and limit the other room’s power. It is feared that using one room provides an opportunity to abuse power because it is easily influenced by political situations (Budiardjo, 1977, p. 180).

Moreover, it becomes very interesting again when approaching the 2004 elections where the celebrities are busy entering a political party and becoming a legislative candidate to subsequently sit in parliament. Celebrities from both film and opera artists, musicians, presenters, models and former beauty queens competed to nominate themselves both election to the head of region/ Pemilihan Kepala Daerah (Pilkada), governor election/ Pemilihan Gubernur (Pilgub) and legislative elections. Several parties often keep inserting the names of the celebrities in the party’s candidate list. In the realm of democracy, anyone has the right to expression. For those against it, they might be considered against the democratic values, or it can also be said to violate human rights that glorify freedom. Although freedom certainly has limits also. Departing from the background above, this study aims to answer the research question, which will be more clearly and in more detail, explained in the next chapter.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

In a democratic system of government, anybody can get involved in the political processes. Indonesia has generated a democratic trend in which people from various professions can participate in the election contest.  Indonesian politics in the post new order era was marked with many changes. One of them is the increasingly important role of candidates in elections. Nowadays, celebrities are the most compelling case to be discussed because they are coming from the entertainment industry and starting to contest in the election. It is well known that celebrities lack political experience and have never been studied about the science of politics. It also stated in the previous studies conducted by Maulana Rifa’i ( 2010), that celebrities could not perform best in their tenure as a part of the legislative body due to the reason of lack of competence in this field of profession. In addition, politics is a big deal that needs to be considered because all the policies and regulations will be on hand of politicians.

Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the voter’s perception of celebrities’ involvement in the Indonesian legislative body. This research also expected to answer the following questions such as:

1. Why do political parties recruit celebrities to contest in the election?
2. What are the students’ perspectives about celebrity involvement in the Indonesian legislative body?
3. To what extent do the celebrities meet the expectation of the citizens during their tenure as the representative of the people? (Wordy sentence)

The objectives of this study are:

1. To find out more about the motives of political parties who are willing to recruit celebrities to jump into political affairs in Indonesia.
2. To get a better view of students regarding the celebrities’ involvement in politics.
3. To know the asses that expectation of people almost filled up with that celebrities’ politics during their tenure as the representative of the people.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The results of this study are expected to be useful for many people, and researchers’ achievement is that researchers desire educational benefits and practical benefits as follows:

1. The result from this research is expected to enrich the people’s understanding of the importance of voting during the election period, especially in this electronic era.
2. For other researchers, this research is expected to give additional insight that can be used as material to scientifically study the influence of celebrities’ popularity toward people’s perspective to elect them in the election contest.
3. For respondent or related parties, this research is expected to be a recommendation and references for determining the primary policy to improve the people’s awareness or either the quality of legislative candidates that comes from the celebrity background.
4. For the community in general, this research is expected to be a guide for maintaining the dignity of the people while participating in electoral processes. Even as the voter or the candidate that will be elected. In addition, this research can also be used as a reference or additional information or material for the next generations to know the pattern of democracy model in Indonesia.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Fealy (2014) states that Indonesian politics are increasingly driven by individual personality rather than political party machines. Wasisto Raharjo Jati (2014) discussed how effective and efficient the celebrity and political celebrity models are in their efforts to win majority support. Besides, the paper also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the celebrity getting involved in politics. Wahyuni Choiriyati’s (2009) which discusses the construction of political reporting that leads to the practice of political pragmatism in the context of the reporting of celebrity politicians.

Celebrities in Politics

Alfito Deannova (2008) that reveals the phenomenon of celebrity candidates in the framework of political marketing and pop culture. The phenomenon that has been successfully addressed is that the boundaries between celebrity and politics are becoming increasingly blurred. The role of celebrities in politics over the world has been around for long periods. De Beus (2011) argues there was shifting over the last 20 or so years away from the traditional parties’ democracy. The thing that must be considered is the nature of democracy changed. Now we have an audience democracy in which the personalities are favoured over the party, the performance will be targeted over the programme and the authenticity over the competency. In this case, the political party will utilise the popularity of celebrities as their mechanism to expand their political marketing. However, the political party is the dominant actor in the field of politics. Party will always decide the party program as the leading principle and competence the virtue for which politicians strived and with which they legitimised their politics.

Pop- Culture becomes a commercial object that produced for the seek of mass consumption without discriminating consumers (Mukerji and Schudson,1986), which means that a popular culture is a tool that has been used by the elites’ people group to suppress or to gain advantages from the masses. Celebrities’ popularity outweighs the charisma of other characters who have long been in politics. As many celebrities who exercise the rights of their citizens engage in politics and succeed in occupying seats as regional heads and legislators provide their appeal to other celebrities.

Being a celebrity will indeed will give a bunch of advantages, but it also has significant negative consequences (Schaller, 1997). Then there are rumours that celebrities join to try their luck only in the political world. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that celebrity status has a significant impact on work-related to stress and the work-life balance of politicians. Basically, it becomes a celebrity’s right to rely on his physical appearance and popularity to enter politics. Celebrities who enter politics are not necessarily fit in their new profession as a politician. The term “political celebrity” cannot generalised because there are two meanings; “political celebrities” who entirely use their popularities on their artistic side, and the second one is “political celebrities” who entirely leave their popularities side, which means that he is fully engaged in activities as a political activist who voices peace and is critical in assessing policy (Street,2004).

This is actually not a strange thing considering that in some large countries, adopting a democracy system of government also has many celebrities who are becoming politicians. Like: John Davis Lodge who was born October 20, 1903. He is an American lawyer, actor, politician, and diplomat. He was the 79th Governor of Connecticut from 1951 to 1955, and the US Ambassador to Spain, Argentina, and Switzerland. John Lodge has starred in dozens of films of the 1920s to the 1940s (Delong, 1999). Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger joined the Republican Party. He served as California’s 38th Governor from 2003 to 2011. On October 7, 2003, he was elected in the 2003 California Elections, which was accelerated to replace Gray Davis from the governor (Sexton, 2004). Hundreds of films he has starred in, including Terminator and Predator. Ronald Reagan was the 40th president of the United States (1981-1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967-1975). Before entering politics, Reagan was a radio, film and television actor (Woodard, 2012).

Post-World War II becomes one of the critical aspects of how the celebrities can jump into the political process. The emergence of television gives a massive impact to the citizens across the globe. Television provides an advantage to celebrities because they are skilled people in using the medium and good at attracting media coverage. Political psychologists have identified the role played by individual traits and characteristics for those who are successful as the political candidates. Catellani (2011) argued that appearance, gender, and demographic characteristics are all relevant to voting choices. Moreover, the evaluations of politicians’ morality and their leadership appear basically really important (Cislak and Wojciszke, 2008). In fact, voters tend to choose political candidates who match with their own personalities, character, and sets of values (Caprara and Zimbardo, 2004). In this case, extraversion and sociability will also play an important role (Mazzoleni and Sfardini, 2009). Looking on how the celebrity can give influence through social media will transfer further information to the voters quickly.

Election in Indonesia

The Election in Indonesia was started in 1955 during the Suharto regime. The election in this era is just merely as the means for political mobilisation. Voters’ participation in the election cannot be counted as a part of democratic values in the country ( Erb and Sulistyo,2009). The government in this era already set a scenario politics in order to maintain the power of the elites’ family. This phenomenon is very tragic because citizens’ desire not really heard through the electoral process.

The implementation of the electoral process in Indonesia is also very closely related to the ideology, general policy of the government at that time and party identification. Indonesia has introduced the system of free and fair elections even in the local and national level. This was introduced since 1999 when the democratic system of well declared by the government. Most interestingly, in the 2004 election, the government decided to adopt participatory democracy. That means the people will elect the president directly. Moreover, in the 2009 elections the voters elect the president as well as the legislative member directly (Erb and Sulistiyanto, 2009).

Liddle and Mujani (2007) asserted that in 1999, 2004 and two rounds of the presidential elections, religion, ethnicity and social class were not as important as party leader also party identification. It means that these characteristics have been existed for a long time ago, even before Indonesia’s Independence Day. This literature is essential to be known because from this statement the observer can easily catch up the electoral behaviour in Indonesia.

In the 1999 election, there was a protest to realise the real criteria of democratic values which are; free and fair elections. Lu and Zhao (2018) agreed that citizens become more active in engaging the powerful forms of political participation through the new world of digital technology.

“One of the great defenders of free speech, Ronald Dworkin, has stated that there are three main reasons why free expression matters. First, we cannot accept collective control of the culture, i.e. we must have the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. Second, there is an issue of democratic transparency; where a free press has a duty and responsibility to hold government and other powerful groups accountable. Furthermore, the last, there is democratic fairness; if we want people to accept democratic procedures and laws that express the will of the majority, then everyone must have not just a vote but a voice, however much we may dislike what they are saying (Owen as cited in Sarkar, 2009, p. 84).

With the various platform of mass media, including newsletters, magazines, radio, television, and social media plays a crucial role in the political participation and democratic reform. Then started from the election in 2014, Indonesian seen more democratic because the candidates can use social media as their platform to introduce themselves to the public. Moreover, this movement becomes the significant step to enlarge voters’ view about the personalities, visions and missions of their future’s representative.

Celebrities’ Involvement in Indonesian Politics

Indonesia cannot be escaped from the culture called as pop-culture. This culture becomes the root of the voters’ doctrine in political participation. This doctrine has been carved far below the consciousness of Indonesian citizens for an extended period. Ethnicity, regionalism and religion played a significant role in the 1999 Indonesian election (Suryadinata, 2002). In Indonesia, the individual’s right to run for community development has been stated in UUD ’45 Article 28 which states “Freedom of association and assembly, expressing thoughts verbally and in writing and as otherwise stipulated by law”. Article 28C also states: (1) Everyone has the right to develop themselves by meeting their basic needs, the right to education, and benefiting from science and technology, culture, to improve the quality of life and for the welfare of humanity. (2) Every person has the right to advance themselves in fighting for their collective rights to develop their society, nation and country. This shows that the law in Indonesia upholds the rights of its citizens in politics.

In Indonesia, the artist occupied political office after the reform era. Previously, during the Old and New Order periods, artists in the political world only functioned as sweeteners. (Habitus x capital) + domain = practice is the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu. Bourdieu is a French sociologist whose thoughts are heavily influenced by Strauss and Sartre (Harker, et al, 2010). Habitus is a mental or cognitive structure with which one lives life in the social world. Habitus is formed from the experience of individuals dealing with other individuals in a network of objective structures that exist in social space (Bourdieu in Ritzer, 2010).

The realm is an arena of power in which there is an effort to compete for resources (capital) and also for the sake of gaining specific access close to the power hierarchy. Not only as an arena of forces, the realm is also the domain of an actor’s struggle over positions in it. The position is determined by the allocation of capital owned by actors in the realm. From this, we can see that the hierarchy in social space depends on how much capital is owned by the actors and the structure of the capital itself (Fashri, 2014; Ritzer, 2010).

Bourdieu explained that several types of capital are spread in the social sphere, namely economic capital, cultural capital, social capital, and symbolic capital (Fashri, 2014; Ritzer, 2010). Economic capital includes the means of production (machinery, land, labor), materials (income and objects) and money that are easily used for all purposes and passed down from one generation to the next. Cultural capital is the overall intellectual qualification that can be produced through formal education or family heritage. Including cultural capital including the ability to present themselves in public, ownership of cultural objects of high value, certain knowledge and expertise from the results of education, as well as certificates (degrees). Social capital refers to the actor’s social network to other parties who have power while symbolic capital is all forms of prestige, status, authority, and legitimacy. The greater a person accumulates certain capital, the greater the opportunity to convert between capital (Fashri, 2014; Ritzer, 2010).

John Stuart Mill (2004), expressed his opinion about the proposed conception of freedom – the satisfaction of the d20062006evelopment and improvement of one’s abilities. Therefore, select one of the nominating exchanges to become a regional leader which is one of the improvements in the existence and self-development process in improving the quality obtained. However, the number of celebrities getting involved in the Indonesian legislative body is increasing dramatically from time to time. Popular candidates among citizens like celebrities would win the election easily compared to the expert and competent politicians who have more knowledge and tried many experiences in political processes before ( Mujani, 2009).

Indonesian election is more focusing on the individual figure rather than party ideology or platform. This phenomenon can be understood due to the pure open-list system that has been adopted by the Indonesian government in democratic processes. The celebrities can utilise their fame power to attract more support from the citizens. Maran (2001) stated that the main factor that drives people to participate in political life is financial satisfaction. Indonesian political culture has the same characteristics as other developing countries. There are some requirements to assess people’s capability to hold the power: wealth, intellectual capacity, moral integrity, charisma, descend and political and social processes.

Reading the contextual term above, celebrities’ involvement in the realm of practical politics is closely related to the capabilities of the candidates concerned. First, the artist is no longer selling in the world of entertainment, so looking for sources that are commensurate with the world of entertainment in the world of politics. Second, the artist wants his name to fly again and is famous as active first by entering as a legislator so that the public can know about his actions through media coverage. Third, artist, it enters politics because it follows the “pseudo idealism” of the political party to be part of the nation’s change, even though it is still “green in politics” the four artists entered politics because of the insistence of political parties in order to gain as many votes as possible by utilising the artist’s fame. Fifth Artists who want to show their people’s aspirations are armed with a long experience of political regeneration in political parties.

However, the number of celebrities getting involved in the Indonesian legislative body is increasing from time to time. Popular candidates among citizens like celebrities would win the election easily compared to the expert and competent politicians who have more knowledge and tried many experiences in political processes before ( Mujani, 2009).

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The relationship between celebrities and political parties are closely related to people’s satisfaction. Celebrities’ performance in the legislative body of government must reach to the people’s expectation. It can be declared that there must be an equal relationship between the way of individual and groups behave or perceive others and the way they view themselves ( Robert Jervis, 2002). In this case, the author will use the conceptual framework, which relates to how the celebrities’ politics meets the people’s expectations as their representative.

The concept that can be used as the basis of this research is the concept of popularity. Popular means a person is valued by group for what she or he does for basic group functioning (Cillessen et al, 2011). Popularity is the level of fame in the eyes of the public. In a political contest, a popular person may not necessarily be worthy of being elected. The opposite of popular in politics is called electability. Electability is the voters’ perception about the candidates’ chance to win in election (Abramowitz, 1989). Rationally, the eligible people should be elected, but because they are not popular among the public, then the people do not vote for them. In fact, voters are not very good at predicting electability. So, both concept popularity and electability must be combined to win the majority votes from the people.

Political parties here will take their part to decide a best campaign technique that will be used to make the candidates popular and electable. There might be a reasonable reason why political parties tend to choose celebrities as their candidate because of popularity beyond them.  Manifestation becomes the best means to make party’s candidates are eligible. The level of satisfaction toward management will bring a more significant impact of trust (Leninkumar 2017).

To convey party’s manifestation, party will utilize the emergence of “Late Modernity” or the era of postmodernity. era plays an important role as the mechanism that influence modern governance and the operation in contemporary democracy. The media influenced election and campaign because global societies highly developed as the continuation of modernity. In this era of media, celebrity can get involved in any affairs easily without restriction. Freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers” (McGoldrick, 2013, p. 126).

In this research paper, the researcher tries to combine and look for the relation among three main components of the research: celebrity, political party, and the finding that meets the people’s expectations. The first one is celebrity.  Celebrity always closely related with the concept of popularity. The second component is political party. The pollical party’s main goal is to win the election through gain the majority votes. The best trick to achieve the goal is by recruiting celebrities to come and join into the party. The last component will be the finding of the research itself, which is the people’s expectations of celebrities’ involvement in the Indonesian legislative body.

Reading the contextualization of Celebrity Politicians in Indonesia in analysing the involvement of celebrities in the realm of practical politics is closely related to the capabilities of the candidates concerned. Celebrities who are successfully occupying the legislative seats and can carry out the mandate by meeting the people’s expectations will be worthy of him and it can be appreciated. There might be a strong possibility for them to become people’s representatives in the next period. On the other hand, if people’s expectations of celebrities’ politics are not achieved it will be better for him to just become a public figure in accordance with their nature.

ASSUMPTION

Celebrities are public figures that have been known by the public very well. They are an entertainer, not politicians in nature. In fact, in the political process, they are not responsive to give any policies to create the most considerable changes for society. As a legislative, they are demanded to be solutif (?) for many problems arises in the community. Therefore, it becomes very dangerous if they are not equipped with proper knowledge and experiences.

However, celebrity is a celebrity, and politician is a politician. They must be separated to avoid bias in practice. Moreover, the party must be wiser to choose the candidate eligible to take part in the legislative body of government. If a celebrity is needed for the party for a particular goal like party branding for example, then the celebrity is enough to be an ambassador of the party but not for holding the seat in the legislative.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research is a systematic attempt to study materials to solve a problem or test a hypothesis to generate and develop general principles. To ensure that the research is conducted in a good quality covering scientific writing and research publication, the outcome will contribute to the development of science. The methodology used in this research is a qualitative descriptive method. The methodological discussion will be based on qualitative research. Then it is processed with the theory and literature regarding the number of celebrities that getting involved in politics from time to time. This method aims to provide fairly solving from the research question above.

1.   Place and Time of Research

In this study, the researcher will conduct research in IIUM. The time for doing this research will start from 10 of February 2020 to 22 of May 2020.

1.   Types of Research

Basically, this research uses the qualitative research design that contains furious aspects. The first one is the qualitative approach. Then continuing with analytical descriptive research.

1.   Data Collection

The researcher will use data collection techniques with documentation studies and completed by interview. The type of data used in this study consists of two types of data, namely:

1.   Primary Data

Primary data is a source of data that directly provides the data to data collectors (Sujarweni, 2015). Primary data are obtained directly from the informer during the research.  This data will be collected by the student itself through a direct interview.

1. Secondary Data

Secondary data is a source of data that not directly obtained by the researcher but gained through other people or through documentation (Sugiyono, 2014). In this research, data obtained from journals, news, books, literature studies, thesis and other data that related to the problem of the study.

1.   Data Analysis

The researcher will use qualitative analysis techniques. The methodological discussion will be based on qualitative research. Qualitative research is designed to explore the personal view of the topic given, while specific qualitative method will examine how individuals see and experience what happens in the world. Using qualitative approaches in order to explore new phenomena and to capture individual’s though, feeling or interpretation of meaning and process. This method also always conducted in some fields of research such as: education, anthropology, information studies, humanities, social sciences and many others.

1.   Population and Sample

The population is the geographical region that consists of the object and subject with certain qualities and characteristics set by the researcher to be studied and then taken the conclusions (Sugiyono,2014). The population in this research will come from the International Islamic University Malaysia student with Indonesian Nationality. In order to get a view of the student, the researcher will interview 9 students that consists:

1. Male, Phd Student, 3^rd years (R1)
2. Male, Phd Student, 1^st year (R2)
3. Male, Phd Student, Final Sem (R3)
4. Male, PG Student, 2^nd year ( R4)
5. Male, PG Student, 1^st year ( R5)
6. Male, PG Student, 2^nd year ( R6)
7. Female, UG Student, 2^nd year (R7)
8. Male, UG Student, Final Sem (R8)
9. Male, UG Student, Final Sem ( R9)

OUTLINE OF CHAPTERS

This study will consist of five chapters. In the first chapter, the researcher will give a clear introduction to the full content that will be discussed in this thesis. Chapter two will discuss the motives of political parties recruit the people that coming from celebrities’ background as their candidate in an electoral contest. Chapter three will explain the celebrities’ achievement during their tenure as a member of the representation of the people. In the fourth chapter, the researcher will present the analytical view from students’ perspective about the celebrities’ involvement in Indonesia legislative body. In the fifth chapter, it will summarize the finding

CHAPTER II

THE DYNAMIC OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN ELECTION

INTRODUCTION

The process of democracy in Indonesia has gone through 21 years since 1999. Along through this journey, there are various processes that are full of the dynamics of democratic life. The General Election to elect the members of the DPR-RI, Provincial DPRD and Regency / City DPRD. In the past few years, the Republic of Indonesia has experienced many changes in carrying out the process of democratization, including the 1945 Amendment, freedom of the press, separation power between military and civilian, freedom of expression, and many others. One of the most important changes since the Reformation was the emergence of various political parties as a form of freedom of expression, association and assembly which became one of the main features of a country that runs a democratic system.

The sustainable, comprehensive, directed and integrated changes are needed to improve living standard. The main goal of Indonesian government is to realize the welfare of society in all fields of life. These noble goals will not easily can be realized without the existence of a concrete form of effort to realize these desires achieved. There must a huge hope that the quality of life of Indonesian people will developed and tend to be more prosperous in this democratic country.

One of the concrete forms of national development is holding general elections which is followed by several political parties in every 5 (five) years. Election is a hint in the succession of national and local leadership for the survival of the democratic life of the nation and state of Indonesia.

It a must for democratic country to respect the rights and obligations of its citizens and provide opportunities for its people to participate actively in politics. One of the real changes is through the succession of democracy and the placement of representatives of the people to sit in government both in the executive as political positions and in the legislative bodies. Furthermore, a successful election is inseparable from the role of political parties as election participants. The political party is trying to make changes to the life of the state with diverse missions and visions, all of which are aimed at achieving the welfare of the nation and state.

The role of political parties is very influential for future nations because through election, they will produce a new leadership, which is elected through general elections. The meaning of democratization in the life of the nation and state can be proven by the holding of general elections which will lead a nation to a new leadership and government, with the hope that the new government will provide an improvement in life in all fields. Thus, the change in the direction of the nation and state’s policy is inseparable from the role of political parties with several party visions and missions that vary according to the ideology they profess.

Along with the concept of democracy, the parliament becomes the body that has the right to hold popular sovereignty by determining public policy. And presenting it in the form of a constitution, which initially only had the contribution of privileges or guarantees of life so that in turn could limit the leader’s movement in carrying out the wheels of his government.

Therefore, political parties play an important role in parliament or legislative institutions that stand together with the executive to determine the country’s direction and goals. Every political party will bring their vision and mission and idealism in attracting the sympathy of the people. They are expecting to get a lot of support from the people. Then it will smoothly obtain positions in government as people’s representatives in the context of its role in a democratic country, which will provide social change and political views of the people with the existence of political parties.

THE ROLES OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN ELECTION

A democratic country usually inhabited by many parties or multi-parties or consisting of several political parties. A democratic country will provide freedom for its people to actively participate in a political party in order to participate in deciding the direction and movement of changes in the country in accordance with its national ideals.

Assessing the role of political parties in the electoral system is not a trivial thing. There must be comprehensive study about the party itself. The party act as the participant of election will certainly enter into an electoral system that is used. What is done by the party in order to increase vote acquisition, certainly will not come out of the electoral system that is used, namely the open proportional system. To explain how the Party faces and supports an open proportional system, as well as maintaining and increasing votes, a theoretical framework is needed to provide scientific reasons.

Politics is one type of human interaction involving a political party that obtains and exercises power over another. If left to individuals themselves, politics can be a bad game, with players trying to strangle one another to protect their own interests. In general, what is called politics is related to various activities in a political system or state, which involves the process of determining and implementing the goals of a country to achieve the intended objectives. Then, power and authority are needed.

Maran (2001) expresses the notion of politics as below: “Politics is a means of struggle to jointly carry out politics, or struggle to influence the distribution of power, both among states and between groups within a country”. It is undeniable that the party plays an important role to create the future leader. From the party, the candidates will arrange and formulate the vision and mission to reach certain goals. A political party is a political organization that undergoes with certain ideology or formed with a special purpose.

Another definition of political party is a group which organized whose members have orientation, values, and ideas the same one. The purpose of this group is to gain political power and usurp political position in a constitutional way for carrying out their policies (Budiajro, 2003). While the understanding of political parties according to Law Number 31 of 2002 concerning Political Parties article 1 reads as follows: “Political parties are political organizations formed by a group of citizens of the Republic of Indonesia voluntarily on the basis of equality of desires and ideals to fight for the interests of members , society, nation and state through general elections.”

Political parties carry out an important task in government. Political parties together with the community try to achieve government control, creating policies that are well suited to them or group’s interests that support them, then organize and persuade voters to vote their candidates to occupy certain positions. Although there are so many involved parties in running the government at all levels, the basic purpose of political parties is to nominate people for public office, and to get as many voters as possible. When elected, these officials will try to achieve the Party’s goals they go through a legislative process and program initiative. “A political party is a vehicle or container for the aspirations of citizens to give birth to candidate of legislative who are prepared to be the bearers of the public mandate to take care of community affairs.” (R3, 5^th  of February 2020).

Political parties in a democratic country will emerge with several interests. The authors summary those interest as follows:

1. First: the uncertainty of the regime or government in power, then those who have the same in the condition of dissatisfaction will merge together in one party system.
2. Second: there are certai people want to participate in politic with their own ideological ideals.
3. Third: some groups of people who have economic, intellectual and mass power want to fight for their and want to be a representative of them in the ruling government.
4. Fourth: dissatisfaction and different understanding of general policies in a political party. This will result in separation from the party, or conversely those who have a lot in common will join or form a coalition to form a new party.

According to Budiarjo (2003), the role of political party is:

1. Political party as a tool of political communication. Meaning that, political party will link between the people and the government. Besides being able to communicate vertically, political party must able to communicate horizontally. Communication between citizens, groups, political parties and government. Through the process horizontal communication various opinions and aspirations politics that develop among the wider community can be absorbed and accommodated by leaders. They formulate the opinions and aspirations from the community to be delivered to the government.
2. Political party as a means of political socialization. With political socialization, a person obtains an attitude and orientation towards political phenomena that generally apply to the community where it is located. This process is also referred to as political education, which takes place gradually from childhood to adulthood. Through the process of socialization, norms are transferred from the older generation to the younger generation. Through political education that takes place systematically and democratically. “The role of political party not only persuade the people to participate in election but also educate public for increase political awareness.” (R6, 16^th of January 2020)
3. Political party as a means of political recruitment. Without political recruitment a political party will not have members or figures that can be relied on various political activities. Political recruitment is one of the efforts of political parties to find and invite people who is talented to be actively involved in political activities as a member. In this way a political party broadens political participation among the people.
4. Political party as a means of settlers of conflict. In democratic society, competition and differences in society are normal. Differences and competition in any form can be a source of conflict, both between individuals and between groups. If the conflict appears, then the task of the political parties is to overcome it.

STRATEGY ON RECRUITING THE CANDIDATES OF LEGISLATIVE

Identification of political parties or party ID is a psychological association of someone with one or more political parties (Campbell, et.al., 1954). Party ID is strong in a closed proportional electoral system because voters choose political parties. While in an open proportional electoral system, party ID tends to weaken.

In developed countries, especially Western countries, competition in general elections is seen as a good alternative in determining the figure of a political leader who has responsibility for his voters. In this case a political party and a legislative candidate and presidential candidate cannot be separated. This condition is very different from Indonesia where the people are apathetic towards the party and its candidates. The Indonesian people’s enthusiasm occurs because both the party and the legislative candidates and their candidates are considered not really working for the good and welfare of their people. Unfortunately, the level of public confidence is decreasing in viewing the existing political parties, this phenomenon leads to a high crisis of confidence will results to community apathy by not contributing in elections or even become as voting abstentions (dakwatuna, 2013).

According to the Director of the Prisma-LP3ES Program Suhardi Suryadi, a community assessment that generalizes the behavior of all politicians and distrust of the public towards the party results in politicians being clean and responsible for their constituents and even victims (okezone,2013).

Pragmatism can be interpreted as an attitude of preferring a decision based on non-substantial short-term considerations rather than substantial long-term considerations. Mahadi (2011) said that political parties are called pragmatic if they prioritize short-term interests by ignoring the party’s normative values. Pragmatic political parties will eliminate the role of party ideology in every action. A party’s decision is no longer based on an ideological standing point, but rather considers the logic of profit and loss.

Pragmatism has become a trend in many political parties today. In the current conception of modern political parties, political parties tend to look for candidates who can win the election and will be cooperative when they take office. The old conception of a powerful party machine in which looking for candidates with little chance of being elected was unrealistic. Selecting candidates who are not reputable, have no money, and have little network makes political parties obligate to try hard to get the candidates elected. That is not efficient for political parties (Masket, 2009).

A respondent believes that the party’s strategy in winning elections is as follows:

“First, there is a focus on the image of a politician who has quite an achievement, then the political party and its media. Media will expose the candidates’ achievements quite interestingly. Whatever the nature of the achievement, for example an achievement such as the spatial planning (city park) that will be enough to be used as a political party capital to polish it and make it like this rise toward a larger political arena. Second, there is a cheaper strategy of recruiting candidates who are already well known by the wider community, such as celebrities. Even though they might not have had achievements in the eyes of the people at first “. (R3, 5^th February 2020)

Political parties must take several steps, as stated by Maran (2002), namely: First, political parties recruit their followers, nominate their candidates, seek funding to support their choices for holding public office. Without political parties the election process of people’s representatives will run well. Both political parties formulate and promote policies that reflect public opinion. In this way political parties play a role as a link between the people they represent and the government. The three political parties helped to organize the main institutions of government. Leadership positions in the legislature and its committees are divided according to the party which has the most members in parliament.

The characteristics of a party will largely determine the inputs and outputs of the political system (Tanjung, 2007). All programs offered to the people during the election, the party’s attitude in dealing with existing political issues, and the selection of candidates for political office at the national and local levels must flow from the ideology. The implementation of programs, policies, and nomination of political officials from parties flowing from party ideology will impact the party’s existence and public trust.

When viewed from the side of its function basically political parties including recruitment and conflict control functions. In recruitment, political parties look for new members and invite talented people to participate in the political process. Recruitment is carried out to ensure the survival of the party, as well as being a way to select candidates for state leaders. Whereas in the function of conflict control facilities, political parties serve as a bridge between those who govern and those who govern. This function is carried out by formulating various community interests, called articulating interests in a communication framework from the bottom up. With this articulation of interests, various demands and interests of the community were formulated by the party to be conveyed to the government. Attitudes and demands are combined into one and this is called the merging of interests or aggregation of interests. This articulation and aggregation of interests, in the political system become input for the competent agencies to make binding decisions for the House of Representatives, the government and so on. For these agencies the articulation of interests and the aggregation of interests are processed or converted into outputs in the form of laws, public policies and other binding forms.

Based on the results of interviews that have been summarized, the possible strategy that have been launched by political parties to recruit legislative candidates is to put forward the element of popularity rather than electability. Because for political parties, the image of legislative candidates is very important and crucial. With good popularity, the party victory will be more real to reach.

CELEBRITIES CANDIDATES

There are two classical theories that explain the nature of representative, namely the theory of mandate and the theory of freedom (Ranney,1996).  In mandate theory, the representative is seen as the recipient of the mandate to realize the power represented in the process of political life. Therefore, the representative should always have a view, behave and act in accordance with the mandate given in carrying out their duties. Personal representation in the political process is not permitted in their capacity as representatives. Differences in views between representatives and people can result in a decrease in the reputation and legitimacy of the representative. Representatives based on the mandate theory are called Delegates (Eulau, 1969).

In the theory of freedom, representatives are deemed necessary to formulate their attitudes and views on the problems faced without being tightly bound to their people. This theory assumes that the representative has received full trust from the people. Therefore, the personal consideration of the deputy who pays attention to all aspects related to the problem at hand determines the decision and attitude of the representative. The logic of freedom theory, the representative is more focused on the operationalization of the representative’s own task. It is possible that the people do not feel represented in some or several problems because their disagreement with representatives is inevitable in this theory. This does not mean that the represented rights to control the actions of their representatives do not function. The people can punish his representative by withdrawing his support from the representative at the next general election. In the theory of freedom, a representative should have a better ability to analyze and understand the problems that society faces rather than the community itself. So, a representative can put forward what he thinks is in accordance with the community’s needs in making decisions and policies

In the context of the electoral system, the ideology of political parties certainly has the biggest roles. Elections must reflect the implementation of party ideology but nowadays elections in Indonesia based on popularity. Finally, the image of a leader is more important than his competence and leadership. According to Ware (1996), party ideology is a means to aggregate public interests should be able to attract the public interest. So that people will choose a party based on their ideology which should have clearly described what the country will be like if the party they elect has power in their country.

Legislative candidates with celebrity background provide considerable benefits for the party because they already have capital popularity. “The advantage of choosing celebrities as candidates is cutting down some of the steps they are supposed to take, such as introducing their candidates to their community. Because they have already attracted celebrities, they don’t need to introduce it or just introduce it further.” (R6, 16^th January 2020)

CONCLUSION

This chapter has discussed the role of political parties in winning general elections in Indonesia. Elections are a symbol of a democratic country. In practice, a democratic country will respect the rights and obligations of its citizens and provide opportunities for its people to actively participate in the political process. In this case the political party has a very large role and influence to provide political education for the people and determine the candidate of political actors.

Political parties will persuade the mass to vote for their candidates to occupy certain positions. To achieve this target, political parties will adopt a specific strategy. Look at the voters’ behavior in Indonesia where the people are apathetic towards the party and its candidates. The apprehension of the Indonesian people occurs because both the party and the legislative candidates are considered not really work for the interests and welfare of their people.

The political party strategy considered as pragmatic and partial to short-term interests to the exclusion of the party’s normative values. This is very dangerous because the characteristics of a party will determine the input and output to be achieved.

The image of a leader is considered more important than his ability to lead. The main concern of political parties is to gain votes as much as possible. Choosing celebrities as legislative candidates will reduce the cost of political parties in the campaign. Optimizing the popularity of celebrities will lead political parties to their ideals and goals more practically.

CHAPTHER III

STUDENT’S PRESPECTIVE REGARDING THE CELEBRITIES INVOLVEMENT IN LEGESLATIVE BODY

INTRODUCTION

The high number of parliamentary thresholds which reached 4 percent in the 2019 elections, parties competed to present another face. If usually the candidates of legislative will come from the people who are fostered by the party, but his time celebrities were presented to enliven this five-year contestation. The presence of celebrities has been seen in the two previous elections. In this election, there were 54 celebrities who tried their luck. This trend was decrease compared to the two previous elections. In 2014, there were 79 celebrities who participated in the election. While in 2009, the number of celebrities who participated in the election reached 59 people. Examining to the two previous elections, it means that there is subtraction in the number of celebrities participating in the political battle.

From the information above emerged a lot of speculation that the political parties were not interested in taking celebrities as legislative candidates to gain votes. However, this opinion cannot be generalized because there is a party led by Surya Paloh, namely the National Democratic Party, is trying to recruit more legislative candidates from celebrities in the 2019 elections.

The Nasdem Party believes that famous figures are an important factor to influence the voters in making choices. They believe that those who often appear on the screen or the media will get many possibilities to be chosen by the masses. The Nasdem party recruited forty celebrities in the 2019 election event. Namely, Olla Ramlan, Nafa Urbach, Adly Fairuz, Krisna Mukti, to Farhan and others.

Reflecting on the 2014 elections, the Partai Amanat Nasional (PAN) was present with 18 celebrities including Melly Zamri, Eko Patrio, Marissa Haque, Desy Ratnasari, Primus Yustisio, and many others. Even if, the Nasdem party had a bad luck in this election because just only one candidate can pitch and take part in the parliamentary seats. When the expectations do not match with the reality, there will be many questions about electability of celebrities in national elections.

CELEBRITIES’ INVOLVEMENT IN INDONESIA POLITICS

Celebrities are always involved by political parties from election to election but the model of celebrities’ involvement in the four elections is not static. There was a change from initially taking the model as a vote getter in context as a celebrity endorser and celebrity politician.

Street (2004) explains that celebrity politicians are people who have backgrounds in the world of entertainment, sports and the show industry. In fact, according to him, there are two more parts of celebrity politicians. First, the elected candidate or politician uses his freedom to claim as a representation of a group or party. Second, celebrities who use their fame to speak as part of popular opinion.

McCracken (1989), celebrity endorser is someone who enjoys public recognition and uses his recognition for the public interest to attract advertising. In this case, the needs of celebrity endorsers are only as support. They usually entertain and display creativity on stage. The goal is only to bind the emotions of the audience so that they are later expected to choose the candidates presented.

In the 1999 elections, when the legislative election system used a closed proportional system in which voters only chose political parties, celebrities were not fully involved with political parties. In this kind of election, celebrities are only used to provide endorsement to the public. In addition, they were involved in political party campaigns and were made campaigners. In this context the involvement of celebrities in politics takes the form of celebrity endorsers.

Starting in the 2004 elections, when the electoral system began to shift to an open proportional system in which voters could choose not only political parties but also legislative candidates, the involvement of celebrities also changed. Although it remains a vote getter, but the type is no longer as a celebrity endorser but has become a celebrity politician. The number of celebrities who became candidates in the 2004 elections reached 38 people. The number then tends to increase in the following election then it decreases in 2019 elections.

It was noted that almost all parties were fielded with celebrities except Partai Keadilan dan Persatuan Indonesia (PKPI), Party Hati Nurani Rakyat (Hanura), Party Persatuan Pembangunan (PPP), and the Garuda Party. Some of the names of Indonesian artists recorded include: Rachel Maryam from Gerindra; Nurul Arifin from Golkar; Desy Ratnasari, Primus Yustisio, Hendro Eko Purnomo from PAN; Tommy Kurniawan and Arzeti Billbina Huzaini from the Partai Kebangkitan Bnagsa (PKB); M. Farhan from NasDem; Tina Toon, Kirana Larasati, Rieke Diah Pitaloka, Krisdayanti, Nico Siahaan, and Rano Karno from the Partai Demokrat Indonesia Perjuangan (PDIP).

The author tries to summarize the data published by the Indonesian general election commission in the form of the table below:

From the number presented above, it means there is a decrease from the two previous elections. In the 2004 elections of 38 celebrities who fought, only 7 were elected. In the 2009 elections, of the 59 celebrities who fought, only 18 were elected. While in the 2014 elections, of the 79 celebrities who tried their luck, only 15 were elected. And in 2019, out of 54 celebrities only 14 were chosen.

More celebrities are involved in politics due to several reasons. The first reason is because of the change in the electoral system in Indonesia from closed list proportional to open list proportional. In the open list proportional method, the legislative candidate can occupy the legislative seat by calculating most votes. In contrast to the closed proportional system in the 1999 election era where voters can only vote for political parties which then the votes obtained by the parties will be converted into seats obtained. For the next process the party will choose who from the list of candidates who will be used as members of the legislature in parliament.

This system is considered defective and needs to be updated. Therefore, in the 2004 election, it was changed to proportional open list where the people could elect legislators directly as the people’s representatives. Since the new system was adopted the party’s position was considered weak and the candidate had a higher value. To anticipate this, the celebrity recruitment strategy can be used as an option to attract celebrity arak minimal arena already has capital popularity (Belt, 2011).

This reason is arguably quite rational for political parties because rather than sacrificing to finance ordinary and not yet well-known people it is better to use a well-known celebrity. The party’s consideration is only on political education and most importantly the possibility to win and get support from the celebrity candidates is much more likely. There is a tendency for celebrities to enter politics in Indonesia because the level of public acceptance tends to be high and easy (R3, 5^th February 2020)

The second reason for the growing number of celebrities’ involvement in politics is the change in the behavior of Indonesian voters who were initially based on the flow of political party ideology towards those based on individual figures. Party ID being weakened. It can be seen from the increasing swing voters (Muhtadi, 2013). It can be judged that in this digital era the motivation of most respondents in voting is due to the personal figure of the candidates and the consideration of political parties that carry only a small percentage of the percentage.

The majority of voters in Indonesia can be categorized as idol syndrome. Departing from this context, candidates for legislative celebrities have a great opportunity to be chosen because it is assumed that they have capital popularity. In addition, celebrities also have the potential to perform regularly on the glass layer and mass media. This opportunity is a very big opportunity to reap the comparative advantages of voice gain.

“Political stage in Indonesia tends to be very welcome and may be a country that carries a democratic system with a cadre of political parties with the most celebrity backgrounds in the world! We can find from actresses, band vocalists, comedians until soccer commentators on TV can become political party cadres.” ( R3, 5^th of February 2020)

The third reason is that most political parties become very pragmatic to focus more on how to calm elections and fund political party activities and the method of recruiting candidates not their main concern. According to the author, political parties’ pragmatic attitude can be considered unwise because political parties only consider the short-term interests and logic of profit and loss rather than the normative value of the political party itself. Another reason political party tend to prefer candidates from political parties is because most celebrities have strong financial capital, which means they will easily reach into their own money.

Six out of nine of the respondents are agreed that the involvement of celebrities in politics in Indonesia was a strategy chosen by political parties to achieve the victory of the election. However, the respondents did not reject the involvement of celebrities in politics as long as they were competent to carry out their functions. However, it is not recommended if their involvement in politics is to find a stage with mere popularity.

“The involvement of artists in the democratic party is legal and constitutionally approved. However, the involvement of these celebrities should hold the mandate as a legislative member. Don’t just become a lip service, it’s just delicious in the mouth but zero implementation. ” (R9, 19^th 0f February 2020)

THE IMPACT OF CELEBRITIES’ INVOLVEMENT IN ELECTIONS

The phenomenon of celebrities jumping into the world of politics brings pros and cons because some groups consider that celebrities are not fit to take up political duties. Even some groups argue that it is difficult to expect some changes from them because they nominate themselves as members of the legislature just to meet their private interests. Celebrities use their popularity to enter the world of politics without good skill distribution. (R8, 6^th of February 2020). This is because the choice of celebrities in the simultaneous election is not due to the capability factor but only in terms of popularity alone (Septianto, 2019).

The biggest impact due to celebrity involvement in politics is the loss of public trust. Many people doubt their competence in making policy. Street (2012) argues that celebrities are problematic because of two things. Which is their potential in making policy and celebrity involvement in politics is only considered as a current trend and is associated with an understanding of the process in the media. It is well known that policy making is a long and complex process and requires its own abilities. In addition to the matter of competence in general, how celebrity’s understanding of the ideology of political parties is equally important. Celebrity involvement in politics is valuable for democracy if a celebrity has a good understanding of the substance of ideology (Wheeler, 2013)

“The impact that will arise can be positive or negative. Depending on the quality and ability of the artist in parliament. If it is good, it will be able to become the mouthpiece of the people. If not, it might just be a waste of energy just to give a nod to all the parliamentary decisions. Alias ​​becomes “Yes Man” person.” (R9, 19^th February 2020)

Another impact is to minimize the chances of other candidates who are not popular but are more competent than celebrities. Many of the legislative candidates who according to their knowledge and political experience are far more capable. But in this case, celebrities already have political capital that is superior to them, namely popularity. The most unfortunate thing is the increasing number of celebrities chosen to be members of the legislature shows that many Indonesian people still prioritize the factor of popularity even though the celebrity is not necessarily competent. “So in my opinion a significant impact is reducing the chances of people who are non-celebrities and have the expertise to enter the legislature.”( R4, 16^th of January 2020)

The next impact is the increasing number of political parties that use an instant strategy to recruit celebrities in elections. Political parties increasingly rely on the strategy of recruiting celebrities because two things namely the cost is not greater than recruiting non-celebrity people and the chance of being elected is also far greater than non-celebrity people.  “Celebrities see the party recruited them by opportunist so that they can act opportunist for both want to make a profit.” ( R6, 16^th of January 2020)

Although this opinion is not absolutely truth, but according to the author this opinion can be used as an element of speculation. On the other hand, celebrities do not always have good fortune and succeed in winning legislative contests. There are several reasons for this. First, the percentage of celebrity electability in elections is not too large. The percentage of celebrities who succeeded in becoming the legislature declined in the 2019 elections. Second, celebrities tend not to be chosen by voters. In short, the involvement of celebrities by political parties is not a strategy that is always capable. Besides the popularity there are still many other things that are more important so that a candidate can be elected. It may be that a celebrity is very famous, but not necessarily that celebrity can be chosen by voters. Voter understanding that celebrities only have capital popularity is an important factor that can affect the election results (Zwarun and Torrey, 2011).

Smart voters well known that a good legislative candidate must have a candidate’s personal attributes, political background, candidate’s credibility, the means of communication, contact used by the candidate, campaign management, and how the candidate influences voter choice decisions (Alsamydai and Al Khasawneh, 2013). Popularity is not the only component that must be emphasized by the community in electing legislative members. However, this is not easy to be understood by all groups, because to grow this awareness requires better knowledge and understanding of politics.

CONCLUSION

This chapter has outlined the perspective of Indonesia Student in IIUM regarding the involvement of celebrities in politics. The theory of popularity and electability are commonly used as paradigmatic approach in viewing this phenomenon. Indonesia as a democratic country will allows anyone from any background of profession to participate actively in election.

It is argued that celebrities are electable to jump into politics as long as they are competence to carry out the duties as the people representative. On the other hand, the student did not agree if the participation of celebrities in election just for stage with sheer of popularity.

Legislative body determines the future of the nation because in this body all regulations and policies are designed. Therefore, this position must be hold with the right person and not to be an arbitrary person.

CHAPTHER IV

CELEBRITIES PERFORMANCE AS LEGISLATIVE MEMBER

INTRODUCTION

Even though this nation did not directly witness the inauguration of the 2019-2024 DPR RI members in the Senayan DPR / MPR Building, Jakarta on October 1, 2019. As part of this nation, we put a lot of new hope on elected and appointed members of the House of Representatives. The public spotlight was immediately drawn to the faces and names of newly appointed DPR members.

Referring to Kompas.com (2019), out of 575 newly appointed DPR members, 298 people or 50.26% were old faces or incumbents and 286 people or 49.74% were new faces. That means, almost half filled with new faces. Great expectations of the people for legislative members can maximize all efforts to be more pro-people and not destroy the people’s expectations with the product of laws that are not in favor of the people.

This expectation can be fulfilled if elected legislators have integrity and mature political understanding and not pursue their private interests. In the case of celebrity politics in Indonesia, people’s expectations of them are still very vague and unclear (R3, 20^th January 2019). Many of Indonesian citizens are discouraged and think that the change of authority from celebrity or non-celebrity circles will not change their destiny. The choice they make is only a formality of a democratic process. In this case the people are not given the slightest education about what are the characteristics of people who will bring change in society.

Everything that happens comes from the initial process of democracy, namely the recruitment of legislative candidates conducted by political parties. If the initial recruitment is right, then the results to be obtained will also be satisfying. However, the results will be inversely proportional.

It is undeniable that the presence of celebrities is a magnet to dredge the votes as much as possible. The appearance of celebrities is a political euphoria that requires an increase in the ability of political communication of politicians. It is not surprising thing that the political world in Indonesia is widely decorated by popular, beautiful, handsome, well-known figures, and public figures from the world of entertainment (Wahyuni ​​Choiriyati and Wiendijarti ideas, 2011).

In Indonesia, representative institutions are institutions whose members are chosen by the people through general elections based on direct, general, free, confidential, honest and fair principles. Those who are declared elected as legislative members are those who get the most votes in each constituency. Therefore, elected representatives should represent the desires and aspirations of the people they represent as long as the people’s wishes do not conflict with national interests (Ramliadi, 2016).

In general, 60% of respondents thought that the greatest hope of the people for legislators was to delegate people’s votes. Public complaints need to be heard and become attention for members of parliament to formulate policies, etc. (R9, 16^th January 2020).

THE FEASIBILITY OF CELEBRITIES IN POLITICS

Right man in the right place. Someone who is entitled and worthy must be placed in a good place (R2, 16^th January 2020). The word eligibility is very broad in its meaning and a patent size is needed for accurate results. The feasibility of celebrities in politics is considered very relative depending on the individual’s judgment. The involvement of celebrities into politics does not necessarily have to be associated with negative contexts. There are some artists who have positive achievements when entering political parties.

Based on Law Number 8 of 2012, chapter VII of the Unity Concerning Requirements for Candidates for DPR, Provincial DPRD and Regency / City DPRD Members. Article 51 sets out the requirements for prospective legislative candidates as follows: 21 years old, residing in Indonesia, fluent in speaking, reading and writing in Indonesian, educated at least graduating from high school.

Referring to the stipulations of the aforementioned above, there is no single regulation that states that celebrities are not eligible to become legislative candidates. Even the most interesting point is that there is no conditions that require and burden a legislative member is someone who has a bachelor status.

Looking at the phenomenon of legislative candidates with celebrity backgrounds in Indonesia, 45% of respondents stated that some candidates were eligible, and some others were not. Feasible for those who have a good educational background, have integrity and their motive to get involve in politics to serve the country and not to achieve personal interests. Not feasible if engaged without the right weaponry. The point is, their existence in parliament is only a puppet of the party without thinking about the interests of the people.

A celebrity must be able and willing to be born with a new identity as politician.This is where political parties must maximize the cadre process. In addition, as new figures, they must be willing to let go of their image as celebrities to become a trusted representative of the people.

CONTRIBUTION OF CELEBRITIES DURING THEIE TENURE AS THE REPRENTATIVE OF THE PEOPLE

Being a celebrity with a bunch of wealth does not make a person complacent. Tempted by the dream of becoming a ruler, the actors in the art world began to turn around and turn into politics. There is no harm if many celebrities take part in the political arena but there is no guarantee that their involvement will make an area more advanced than before.

Seeing voters behavior in Indonesia which can be judged to be unwise due to the lack of political education in the midst of society, so many concerns arise from political critics in Indonesia. When working as arts workers, celebrities who are accustomed to lavish and elite lifestyles will not easily change their habits to mingle and populist.

Six out of nine of total respondents thought that the contribution of legislative members with celebrity backgrounds in Indonesia could not be felt. This means that there is no significant change in their involvement.

“But then as for the contribution of political celebrities to the people of Indonesia is still not maximized because they are still lacking to mature, to both understand the political climate of the country so that their contributions can be felt has not touched many layers of society, especially the people of Indonesia.” (R3)

There is a need for political maturity for celebrities’ candidates so that their involvement can deliver the message of struggle ideas. Legislators are mouthpieces of those who have great ideas for changing society, so that the echo of the idea becomes bigger and is accepted more quickly to the public.

CONCLUSION

The main hope to elected legislators as a place to accommodate people’s aspirations. As a democratic country where the government of the people, by the people and for the people, all kinds of policies and legislation are expected to be in line with the interests of the people. A representative of the people must be able and appropriate in running their function as servants for all Indonesian people.

All people are worthy and entitled to become representatives of the people regardless of their background, whether celebrities, doctors, civil servants, businessmen, all are entitled as long as people’s rights can be guaranteed in their hands. In the case of celebrity candidates, there are many pros and cons. Celebrities are considered suitable for those who have a good background and stable integrity.

Up to this point, the contribution of political celebrities has been less memorable for the people of Indonesia. Interviews revealed that 67% of respondents thought that their contribution was considered weak. Therefore, it is necessary to increasehe recruitment process of legislative candidates so that all decisions can benefit all interested parties.

CHAPTHER V

CONCLUSION

The presence of celebrities in the general election enlivened the democratic party. Celebrity involvement in elections can be as a vote getter (celebrity endorse) or celebrity politician. When the election system in Indonesia changes to an open proportional system, voters can freely choose legislative candidates according to their wishes. The judgment used is personal judgment. Therefore, celebrities tend to be able to easily get people’s votes.

Celebrity fame is a separate weapon for political parties to launch their strategy. Political parties only need to pay more attention to political education for legislative candidates from celebrity backgrounds. On the other hand, due to lack of education, many decisions taken by political celebrities are not in line with the needs of the people.

A bad impression is the loss of ideology, dignity and integrity of the leader. This will trigger a situation where the people cannot trust and expect anything from the government. The people’s trust is only used as a voting machine which is abandoned by the master after the first usage.

The most significant impact  from celebrities’ involvement is creating a new perspective for the Indonesian people that as a legislative candidate it is enough to capitalize on popularity and to put aside other more important elements such as personal attributes, political background, candidate credibility, means of communication and contact used by candidates, campaign management, and how candidates influence voter choice decisions.

This phenomenon can mushroom in Indonesian society because political parties tend to choose to be pragmatic. Making celebrities as legislative candidates will provide a greater opportunity for parties to win the election. On the other hand, choosing legislative candidates with celebrity backgrounds is also a challenge.

The results of the research were conducted by gathering opinions through interviews of several respondents with a background in IIUM students. It can be concluded that most of the interviewers criticized the political party strategy in recruiting candidates for the legislative candidates which were considered to be more pragmatic. Political parties use celebrities as vote getter machines without properly taking responsibility for the trust entrusted by the people to elected legislators.

The interviewees are aware that all Indonesian citizens have the same right to participate actively in elections including celebrities. However, the involvement of celebrities in elections must be accompanied by good competency capital so that their involvement can make a positive contribution to the people of Indonesia.

Some of the impacts that are considered less than optimal on the involvement of celebrities in the legislature are their lack of skills in the policy making process. The resulting policy cannot be felt by the people who have chosen them.

The next effect is to reduce the chances of legislative candidates who have good political competence and competence to compete in elections because they are less popular than celebrity candidates. The party is trigered to use an instant strategy to recruit legislative candidates against celebrity backgrounds because they are already popular.

RECOMMENDATION

   Looking at the discussion above, the author wants to give a number of recommendations:

1. Political parties should tighten the requirements for candidate legislative recruitment processes. Required standards for eligibility must be determined in order to obtain qualified and ideal candidates.
2. Political parties should actively participate in providing political education to the public by offering figures that can be trusted and can contribute to change, which is better for community and state life, not only by virtue of popularity as a window or political cosmetics.
3. As legislative candidates, both celebrities and non-celebrities must have strong integrity and identity so that evil agreements do not easily influence them to get their private interests.