Big parties support plan to fire dissenting legislators<\/p>\n
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The country's three most popular political parties have thrown
\ntheir weight behind plans to revive a mechanism to fire
\ndissenting legislative members, but differ on other issues.<\/p>\n
Executives of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
\nPerjuangan), Golkar Party and National Development Party (PPP)
\nfactions in the House of Representatives said on Friday that
\nreinstating the old mechanism would help parties discipline
\nmembers, rather than allow the parties to practice
\nauthoritarianism.<\/p>\n
\"A legislator can only be fired after the case is heard at the
\nlocal chapter of the party concerned,\" said Yahya Zaini, a Golkar
\nParty member and chairman of the House special commission
\ndeliberating the political party bill.<\/p>\n
Echoing Yahya were Thaher Saimima of the PPP faction and
\nSukowaluyo Mintohardjo of the PDI Perjuangan faction, both deputy
\nchairs of the commission.<\/p>\n
They said a party had the authority to select its members for
\nlegislative seats, despite an open-list proportional system that
\nmight be adopted to elect House legislators.<\/p>\n
The issue also highlights the deliberation of the election
\nbill by another commission.<\/p>\n
On Thursday evening, Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno
\nheld a hearing with the commission deliberating the political
\nparty bill.<\/p>\n
The three biggest factions in the House underlined four
\nprominent points that needed prolonged discussion: Article 2 on
\nminimum requirements for those wishing to establish a new
\npolitical party; article 4 on the party's ideology and
\nprinciples; article 7 paragraph f on the firing procedures and
\narticle 20 on supervision of political parties.<\/p>\n
Both Thaher and Sukowaluyo agreed to impose strict
\nrequirements on people wishing to establish new parties, saying
\ntoo many parties was not suitable for democracy building in the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
Golkar rejected the clause and instead proposed that a 3
\npercent electoral threshold be imposed to restrict the number of
\nparties eligible to contest the next election.<\/p>\n
\"I guess we should allow natural selection to work,\" Yahya
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The current Law on Political Party No. 2\/1999 has paved the
\nway for people to establish political parties. More than 200
\nparties have registered with the Ministry of Justice and Human
\nRights, raising suspicions they are only trying to obtain
\ngovernment funds.<\/p>\n
In the 1999 general election, the government provided
\nsubsidies for all parties contesting the general election, the
\namount ranging from Rp 500 million (US$56,818) to Rp 1 billion.<\/p>\n
On supervision of parties, both Golkar and PPP rejected the
\ngovernment's role, saying \"the government itself is made up of
\nthe country's political parties.\"<\/p>\n
\"I suggest that the Supreme Court or the Constitutional Court
\nconduct the supervisory job,\" Yahya said.<\/p>\n
PDI Perjuangan agreed on the proposal, but limited the roles
\nonly to certain areas, including the registration process of
\nparties.<\/p>",
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