Major parties back KPU's code of conduct<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): All major political parties, excluding the
\nGolkar Party, gave a thumbs up to the General Election
\nCommission's campaign code of conduct barring political parties
\nfrom recruiting state officials, including ministers, from
\ncampaigning.<\/p>\n
Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung has protested the commission's
\nruling, saying ministers could take time off from their official
\npositions to take part in the campaigns.<\/p>\n
Both the government and the commission on Monday were still at
\nodds over the ruling. The Supreme Court released on Monday a
\nletter giving its legal opinion on the issue, relinquishing all
\nresponsibility on the decision to the President.<\/p>\n
Following are some comments on the issue:<\/p>\n
Deputy chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party for
\nStruggle (PDI Perjuangan), Jacob Tobing: \"PDI Perjuangan is in
\nsupport of the KPU ruling because it reflects people's
\naspirations ... Many government officials, including ministers,
\ncannot make a clear separation between their personal interests
\nand their official jobs.<\/p>\n
\"We fear ministers may use state facilities if they are
\nallowed to campaign; and local officials, including governors and
\nregents, will certainly give special treatment to ministers if
\nthe ministers come to provinces and regencies to lead campaigns.\"<\/p>\n
Qomari Anwar, chief of the Center for Research and Development
\nat the United Development Party (PPP): \"It would not be a serious
\nproblem for PPP if party chairman Hamzah Haz (State Minister for
\nInvestment) and deputy chairman A.M. Saefuddin (minister for food
\nand horticulture) do not campaign.<\/p>\n
\"However, both the government and the election commission
\nshould be realistic and let ministers take unpaid leave or be
\nfreed from their daily tasks to allow them to campaign for their
\nparties.\"<\/p>\n
He said the code of conduct regarding officials' involvement
\nin campaigns should be understood in the context that the nation
\nis in a \"sick\" condition in which the public has had bad
\nexperiences with officials abusing their power in campaigns.<\/p>\n
In a normal condition, he said, all officials, including the
\nPresident and ministers, should be allowed to campaign because it
\nis their obligation to fight for their party.<\/p>\n
Iskandar Muhaimin, secretary-general of the National Awakening
\nParty (PKB): He said a paternalistic culture still pervades
\nIndonesian society.<\/p>\n
\"Most people, including local officials, will certainly give
\nspecial treatment to ministers campaigning for their party in
\nregions although they are off duty. And ministers will not be
\nable to separate their personal interests from their official
\njob.\"<\/p>\n
A compromise could be made by allowing parties to recruit
\nministers to campaign for their party with close supervision from
\nthe Election Supervisory Committee, he said.<\/p>\n
\"Ministers found guilty of abusing their power and of using
\nstate facilities in campaigns, and the parties recruiting them,
\nshould be penalized,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The Crescent Star Party (PBB) urged the election commission to
\neither go ahead with its initial policy or make a change, but
\n\"the change it makes must be simply because the KPU wants to make
\na change, not because of the Supreme Court's fatwa\".<\/p>\n
\"It's because the KPU is a free and independent body,\" PBB
\ndeputy chairman Hartono Mardjono said.<\/p>\n
An earlier statement of the party read by the coordinator of
\nPBB's Action Committee for Election Winning, Farid Prawiranegara,
\nsaid the Supreme Court's edict has no binding power to the KPU.<\/p>\n
Citing the law on elections, the law on the judiciary and the
\n1985 law on the Supreme Court, PBB said a fatwa, or edict, \"is
\nonly legally binding to the presidency, either as a state's high
\nbody or as a party which calls for a fatwa.<\/p>\n
Hartono warned that the course of elections could be disrupted
\n\"if the KPU is consistently disturbed\".<\/p>\n
Members of the National Elections Committee (PPI) should also
\nbe banned from campaigning.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis of the Election
\nSupervisory Committee also said the legal opinion of the Supreme
\nCourt is not binding.<\/p>\n
\"So it is up to the General Elections Commission (KPU) whether
\nit is going to proceed or to annul its decision,\" Todung said.
\n(aan\/byg\/rms)<\/p>",
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