More speed needed<\/p>\n
Even as officials are straining to finish the vote count for
\nlast Monday's general elections, public calls to speed up the
\nelection of a new President are growing. The obvious reasoning is
\nthat waiting until the end of October for a new President and
\nVice President to be elected, as agreed by President Habibie and
\nthe House of Representatives (DPR) leadership last year, would
\nleave the country for too long with a lame-duck government -- a
\nsituation which the country can ill afford given current
\nconditions. This is all the more true since the Habibie
\ngovernment is seriously lacking in both legitimacy and
\ncredibility.<\/p>\n
However, rational as the argument may be, anyone who cares to
\nobserve the confusion accompanying the execution of last Monday's
\naccelerated general election -- the original plan was for it to
\nbe held only in 2002 -- would understand the hurdles and pitfalls
\nthat are involved in speeding up such a democratic process, and
\neven more so given that Indonesians have for more than 30 years
\nmissed any experience with multiparty democracy.<\/p>\n
Under the Constitution, the President and Vice President are
\nelected by majority vote by the People's Consultative Assembly,
\nor MPR, which, as the repository of the people's sovereignty, is
\nIndonesia's supreme law and policy-making body. Before it elects
\na President and Vice President, this assembly must first draft
\nwhatever decrees are relevant to the situation and draw up a
\nbroad outline of policies for the chief executive to implement
\nduring the five years that he, or she, is in office. This, in
\nessence, is the task that awaits the nation's highest legislative
\nassembly as far as the process of electing a chief executive and
\nhis deputy are concerned.<\/p>\n
But since the MPR is made up of all the 500 members of the
\nHouse of Representatives (DPR) plus 200 more representing the
\ncountry's 27 provinces and various community groups, both the
\nDPR, being the national legislature, and the 27 provincial
\nlegislatures must be in place before the MPR can be formed and
\nconvened. Hence the importance of putting more speed into the
\ncounting of last Monday's ballots, including the fixing of
\ndisputes and complaints, to make sure that the deadline of June
\n21 is met for the announcement of the official count of the
\nballots and the allocation of seats to the political parties in
\nboth the national and provincial legislatures.<\/p>\n
Some observers are optimistic that it may be possible to
\nconvene the MPR as early as August -- two months earlier than
\nscheduled -- provided that the final results of Monday's ballot
\ncan be available according to deadline. This, though, may be
\neasier said than done given the country's geographic make-up and
\nthe inexperience of the manpower available to administer and
\nsupervise the process. Also, the fact that no single party is
\nlikely to win an absolute majority in the new parliament
\nobviously can make things a good deal more complicated than they
\nalready are.<\/p>\n
In any case, the sooner a new government is installed, the
\nbetter it will be for the country. Given the state of affairs
\nthis country is in at present, there is no time to be lost to
\nbegin putting things in order. An independent and incorruptible
\njudiciary must be established to ensure legal certainty and the
\nrule of law for business and for the citizenry at large. The
\nstate bureaucracy must be thoroughly cleansed and streamlined.
\nLaws must be drafted and passed to prohibit a return of
\nautocratic rule and to ensure that the government remains
\naccountable to people. The list of jobs to accomplish could
\ncontinue.<\/p>\n
At this point of the process, the positive market reaction to
\nthe first tentative election results appears to indicate that a
\nspeedy establishment of a responsible reformist government is
\nindeed what market players are waiting for. It would be a pity if
\nthe momentum is lost.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/more-speed-needed-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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