ABRI gets seats in the House<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): New legislation for the June general election
\nwas finally agreed to on Wednesday and will be enacted at the
\nplenary session of the House of Representatives (DPR) on
\nThursday.<\/p>\n
The breakthrough came after the four factions agreed to
\nrestrict the Armed Forces (ABRI) to 38 unelected seats in the new
\n500-member DPR.<\/p>\n
The Armed Forces currently receive 75 unelected seats in the
\nDPR.<\/p>\n
During the long-running debate, the United Development Party
\n(PPP) faction fought to limit the military to 15 seats, a stance
\nstrongly opposed by the ABRI and Golkar factions.<\/p>\n
A second major hurdle to the enactment of the political bills
\nwas removed on Wednesday when faction leaders agreed to conduct
\nthe June 7 election at the provincial level, instead of at a
\nregency level, as the majority Golkar faction desired.<\/p>\n
Faction leaders attending a closed lobbying session held to
\nbreak up the impasse over the two issues denied the agreement had
\nresulted from "political horse trading" among them.<\/p>\n
"No parties win or lose. It's the nation that wins," said
\nGolkar Chairman Akbar Tandjung, who is also the minister\/state
\nsecretary, after emerging from the closed door session.<\/p>\n
PPP House faction chairman Zarkasih Nur later told a news
\nconference that his party "had done its best" given the limited
\nleeway it had to work in. He said the two issues "are tied in a
\npackage".<\/p>\n
Zarkasih said that ABRI would have backed Golkar's demand for
\na vote on the issues if it had pressed ahead with its agenda. He
\npointed out that the PPP and the United Development Party (PDI)
\ncould not hope to win a vote against the two powerful factions.<\/p>\n
"So rather than losing on two fronts, PPP agreed to the motion
\n(on military seats)," he said.<\/p>\n
Zarkasih said the party was basically "dissatisfied" with the
\nresults, but conceded that they must accept the decision.<\/p>\n
ABRI Commander Gen. Wiranto appeared relieved by the decision.<\/p>\n
"It (the new seat allocation) is a drastic cut," he told
\njournalists after the lobbying session.<\/p>\n
Wiranto, who is also the minister of defense and security,
\nsaid 38 was the minimum number of seats with which the military
\nfelt it needed to function effectively in the legislature.<\/p>\n
Wednesday's agreement demonstrated the military's strong
\npolitical clout in the country's politics. One day earlier,
\nABRI's Chief of Territorial Affairs Lt. Gen. Susilo Bambang
\nYudhoyono went on the record to say that 38 was the minimum
\nnumber of seats the military required.<\/p>\n
The military also agreed to accept a sharp cut in the number
\nof seats it is awarded in the country's provincial and regency
\nlevel legislatures to 10 percent of the seats in each assembly.<\/p>\n
Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid, his secretary-general
\nFeisal Tamin, government expert, Ryaas Rasyid, who is also
\ndirector general for regional autonomy, PPP Chairman Hamzah Haz,
\nGolkar executives Slamet Effendy Yusuf and Aminullah Ibrahim, and
\nthe ABRI House faction leaders Hari Sabarno, Achmad Rustandi and
\nBudi Harsono also attended Wednesday's lobbying session, which
\nwas a continuation of a marathon session which ran from Tuesday
\ninto the early hours of Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
The PDI was represented by Secretary-General Buttu Hutapea and
\nY.B. Wiyanjono. House Special Committee chairman Abu Hasan Sazili
\nwas also present.<\/p>\n
Legislators agreed at a later session of the special committee
\nto work overtime on Wednesday to make the Jan. 28 deadline, the
\ntime it had been allotted to endorse the political bills.<\/p>\n
Electoral district<\/p>\n
Commenting on the consensus that the polling and ballot
\ncounting would be conducted at the provincial level, PPP faction
\nchairman Zarkasih and Wiyanjono of the PDI -- who's parties both
\nfought for that system -- said they were satisfied.<\/p>\n
The outcome is unlike the proportional representation voting
\nsystem proposed by Golkar, whereby the voting was to be conducted
\nat the regency level, but the agreement was sort of a combination
\nof the two systems, as Wiyanjono described it.<\/p>\n
"District aspirations" were addressed in the agreed voting
\nsystem, he said.<\/p>\n
Unlike the present voting system in which a political party's
\ncentral board in Jakarta has the ultimate power to determine its
\nlegislative candidates, the new laws will require candidates to
\nbe endorsed by the party at regency level.<\/p>\n
In the past, candidates were often unknown in their assigned
\nconstituency.<\/p>\n
The seats for each party will be determined by the number of
\nvotes gained at the provincial level, but the candidates can only
\nbecome House members if their party wins in the regency where
\nthey were nominated.<\/p>\n
Residual votes will be distributed at the provincial level for
\nthe remaining seats, and then the party's central leaders can
\ndetermine who will take these seats.<\/p>\n
To ensure a balance of representations between the islands of
\nJava and Bali -- where over 60 percent of the country's
\npopulation lives -- and the outer islands, the factions also
\nagreed "in principle", that each regency will have a minimum of
\none representative. (aan)<\/p>",
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