Jakarta, 19 July 2009.

I asked Syennie why she left the cool mountain air of her "haute cuisine" hometown for the polluted traffic jams of Jakarta. Turns out, she came to the Big Durian to visit Indonesia's Constitutional Court (MK) to resolve a dispute in the Tomohon mayoral elections.

You see, Syennie isn't just any ordinary citizen. In fact, she's head of the North Sulawesi chapter of the Democratic Party, and was deputy mayor of Tomohon from 2005 to 2010. This year, she ran for the top job against the incumbent, Jefferson Rumayar. Syennie was considered the favorite, but she lost by a very thin margin.

Syennie claimed gross election fraud, including manipulation of demography (people imported from outside Tomohon), forms not sent to areas that supported her, ballot-stuffing, invalidation of ballots, proxy votes (using children's names with dates of birth changed), vote-rigging, bribery and various forms of intimidation.

What also bothered Syennie was the fact that Jefferson Rumayar could run at all. You see, he'd been officially declared a suspect in a corruption case by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in June. For two years, the KPK had investigated irregularities in the regional budget, and he was accused of embezzling funds amounting to Rp 19.8 billion (about US$2 million).

Naturally, Syennie had my sympathies, but what she is experiencing is hardly unusual. Eight cases like Syennie's were lodged on Aug. 13 alone. In fact, by Aug. 27, 159 of the total of 212 cases filed with the MK this year were about regional electoral disputes. That's 75 percent!

I suppose it's not surprising really, given the regional elections this year involved 246 regional head elections: seven governors, 204 regents and 35 mayors. A recipe for chaos and corruption? Bambang Widjojanto, legal adviser to the Governance for Partnership Reform (and candidate for the vacant chair of the KPK) thinks so. He correctly predicted that the 2010 regional elections would be marred by rampant corruption.

Ibrahim Fahmi, the coordinator of the political corruption division of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) has a similar view, but is more concerned that corruption suspects, like Jefferson, can run unimpeded.

"Once they get elected", he said, "the likelihood is that their corruption case can be covered up."

I can see his point, but imagine if corruption suspects were barred. All that would do is open the way for politicians to accuse opponents of committing a crime just to knock them out of the race. A catch-22 situation, huh?

It's problems like these that led Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi to announce that the government was seriously considering returning to the old mechanism of letting provincial legislators appoint governors, instead of having direct popular elections. Besides, regional elections are costly, he says.

Hang on a minute there, Gamawan! Sure, elections are messy and expensive, but so is democracy! We have a saying in Indonesia, "Rambut boleh sama hitam, pendapat berbeda-beda", meaning, "we all have black hair [in Indonesia, that's generally true!], but we all have different opinions too". Democracy is, in part, the freedom to disagree, fight and squabble - to argue! We had much more orderly (and cheaper) "'elections" in the authoritarian era of Soeharto, but do we really want to return to that?

The reality is that for democracy to work, elections must be (party) politics in action, and politics, like true love, rarely runs smooth. And that's hardly unique to Indonesia - just look at the recent elections in Australia, where Julia Gillard's Labor and Tony Abbott's Liberal conservative opposition coalition got virtually the same number of votes, resulting in a hung parliament. And remember the controversial 2000 presidential elections in the US, where Bush defeated Al Gore by a handful of contested votes?

But it's at regional level that elections are the craziest, as Syennie now knows. There's a famous Australian political documentary from 1996, "Rats in the Ranks", about the battle for power in an inner-city council that would probably remind her of recent events in Tomohon. It shows what a terrible business politics is, a low game played by sharks and megalomaniacs where the only real political principle is "watch your back!" Perhaps the candidate in West Sulawesi, who forced his wife to prostitute herself to repay his campaign debts, had seen the film?

Yep, politics is not for the faint-hearted. There are lots of rats in the ranks, and it's not easy to skewer them like the roasted rats in Tomohon market, although that's probably what many local politicians deserve.

Anybody who reads my columns will know how critical I am of Reformasi. But I will admit that democracy is a learning process, and it ain't all bad. Yes, corruption is still with us, but at least good politicians like Syennie now have somewhere to go when the local rats get out of hand. At least we have the MK, and at least its judges generally decide the electoral disputes before them cleanly and fairly.

And there's always the KPK! Regardless of how Syennie's appeal at the MK goes, if the KPK decides Jefferson was corrupt, then she may become mayor of Tomohon after all.

Then it will be party time in Tomohon market! They'll go bats, I reckon.

Rats Ranks Regional Elections

Before my recent trip to Turkey, I sought tips from a friend who had been there before. "Turkey is one of those countries you can't visit just once," she said. "You have to go several times!" Once I had arrived, I understood what she meant - and I only got as far as Istanbul! I spent six days in Turkey's most famous city, even with a crammed sightseeing schedule, it allowed only for the major sights. Among these, however, were some of the most magnificent mosques in the world. Although Turkey is a secular state, its population is 99 percent Muslim, so you'd expect a lot of mosques. A lot? There are about 2,500 in Istanbul alone, to say nothing of the myriad historical churches, synagogues, palaces, castles and towers. The history of Istanbul - previously known also as Constantinople and Byzantium - starts before 600 BC. The city is one of the world's great melting pots and always has been, its development influenced by ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Genoese, Ottomans and modern Turkish cultures. This is why the Turks have always been good at religious tolerance - an attitude I found reflected in their architecture. When the Ottomans won Constantinople from the Christians, they didn't destroy the churches of the infidels, they simply converted them into mosques by plastering over the Christian elements. Remove the plaster and voila! The beautiful mosaics are intact underneath. The most famous example is the Hagia Sophia, which began as an Orthodox patriarchal basilica (360-1261 AD) serving first as the cathedral of the Byzantine Empire and then, between 1204 and 1261, of the Latin Empire. When Sultan Mehmet conquered the city in 1453, he ordered this gigantic imperial church be turned into a mosque through the addition of minarets, the mihrab (a niche indicating the qibla or the direction to Mecca), a mimbar (a pulpit) and other Islamic elements. After Mustafa Kemal Ataturk reinvented Turkey as a republic in 1923, this famous church-cum-mosque underwent another transformation, and officially opened as a museum in 1935. Close by the Hagia Sophia is the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, recognized as one of the most beautiful mosques in Turkey and in the world. Built between 1609 and 1616, it is popularly known as the Blue Mosque because of the 20,000 superb blue tiles that line its interior, each decorated with elaborate floral designs. Grand in size, the Blue Mosque gazes at Hagia Sopia across a park dotted with fountains. These two massive monuments, products of the two empires that made this city great, dominate the city center today just as their builders had intended centuries ago. The third mosque I visited was the Yeni Mosque (also called the New Mosque), another Ottoman Imperial mosque constructed in 1597 at the order of Safiye Sultan, the wife of Sultan Murad III. Situated on the Golden Horn close to the swarming Spice Bazaar, it is another must-see. Where Hagia Sophia is famous for the size of its dome, the Yeni mosque is noted for the sheer number of its domes: 66 domes and semi-domes in a pyramidal arrangement, plus two minarets.

Like the Blue Mosque, the Yeni was part of a complex with adjacent structures to service both religious and cultural needs - in fact the Spice Bazaar (also known as the Egyptian Market) began life as way of covering the mosque's construction costs. The much-smaller Chora is another essential stop - a true gem. It is one of the most beautiful surviving examples of a Byzantine church, despite being used as a mosque after the Ottomans took over. Now a museum, its interior is covered by glittering and delicate mosaics, with one wing plastered with pastel-colored frescoes. The Islamic prohibition against iconic images led to these being covered by a layer of plaster or wooden shutters. Frequent earthquakes also took their toll, but in 1948 restoration work began and the Chora again opened to the public in 1958. I also went to see the Suleymaniye Mosque, another famous imperial mosque. Although it is second to the Blue Mosque in size, its imposing design makes it seem even larger. It was being restored, so I was only able to see the surrounding tombs and the rose gardens, but it was breathtaking nevertheless. My tour of mosques-that-are-not-always-mosques in Istanbul left me impressed by the deep respect Turks have for their cultural artifacts, and their serious attitude toward restoration and preservation. I was overawed as well by the sheer beauty of the buildings: it is hard not to be deeply moved when you stand in their vast open interiors, surrounded by soaring domes and elaborate decoration. But what meant the most to me was what Istanbul's mosques said about the culture of religious tolerance that has existed for centuries in Turkey. This didn't begin with Ataturk, as might be imagined, but goes way back to the Tanzimat (reorganization) reforms of the Ottoman Empire in 1839 and beyond. After the attacks on churches in Jakarta carried out by religious hardliners this year, visiting the historical mosques of Istanbul was refreshing. A visit to the mosques of Istanbul might help open those hardliners' hardened hearts and narrow minds to the real meaning of religion.

Turkish Tips

* Getting there: There's no better way to get to Turkey than by Turkish Airlines, which operates five times weekly from Jakarta to Istanbul. The economy seats are comparatively spacious (more legroom than most), and the food is great. Make sure you try the Turkish walnuts they serve with drinks, and the cherry juice, which are to die for!

* Food finds: Must-try dishes during your stay? Everything! The kebabs, the mezes, the desserts, ice cream, soups, and of course, the Turkish Delight, are all dangerously more-ish (for an introduction to Turkish food, see my article "Come for the History, Stay for the Food", in the Sunday Post, Aug. 1).

* Getting around: Transportation is easy (trams are simple to use and taxis are plentiful), and the city and the toilets - even the public ones - are clean! During my stay I had no hassles at all. In fact, I found people to be very polite, friendly and helpful. Guidebooks warn women traveling alone about minor groping and harassment, but nothing more serious than that.

* Best bargains: Want to get something for the folks back home? Well, if you go to the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar (which doesn't just sell spices, I can assure you), you'll find there is something for everyone: the Turkish blue eye (a traditional amulet to ward off evil), pashmina shawls, hand-painted ceramics, jewelry (including beautiful amber), cushion covers, leather goods, carpets and kilims, belly-dance costumes, copper ornaments and spices _ and, of course, more Turkish Delight!

Magnificent Mosques