Gamawan Fauzi, Home Affairs Minister:
There's no ideal system for local elections

NOT so long ago Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi was a student busy preparing his dissertation, something he has been doing over the past year. On weekends, he would work on his quantitative researchdisseminating questionnairesand analyzing them, mainly for his doctoral dissertation, titled 'The Impact of Direct Local Elections on Corruption among Local Chief Executives in Indonesia' which he has now completed. "I defended it last month," he said, with a tone of relief.

On Tuesday last week at his office in Central Jakarta, Gamawan met with Tempo and proudly showed off his 400-page opus, a requirement to complete his doctoral degree program from the State Institute of Public Administration. "It's not the thickness that matters, but my passion to keep on studying," he said.

September 16, 2014