Tough talks delay election bill debate<\/p>\n
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
House of Representatives members began the deliberation of the
\nelection bill on Thursday, and immediately became involved in
\ntense debates over a number of contentious issues that may cause
\na delay in the passage of the crucial draft law scheduled for
\nDecember.<\/p>\n
All major factions in the House have expressed their agreement
\nto maintain a proportional system to elect members of legislative
\nbodies, with some of them wishing some improvement to the old
\npractice.<\/p>\n
Ade Komaruddin of the Golkar Party and Samuel Koto of the
\nNational Mandate Party (PAN) said their factions would push for a
\ndirect proportional system, in which voters chose names instead
\nof parties. The largest party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of
\nStruggle (PDI Perjuangan), insisted on keeping the old system, of
\nonly voting for the party, intact.<\/p>\n
\"This new method (individual names on the ballot) will
\nmaintain the balance of power between the President and the
\nHouse, because it gives both legislators and executives equally
\nstrong legitimacy,\" Ade said.<\/p>\n
He said the old system, in which legislators served their
\nrespective parties instead of their constituents, would degrade
\nthe political status of the House vis-a-vis the president, who
\nwould be elected directly by the people.<\/p>\n
\"The old system gave us only the party's support not the
\npeople's backing. Even the DPD members will be more powerful than
\nus if we defended the old system,\" Ade said, referring to the
\nRegional Representative Council which will represent regions in
\nthe People's Consultative Assembly.<\/p>\n
A province will have four seats in the DPD, according to the
\namended Constitution. In a densely populated province like West
\nJava, an elected DPD member represents seven million people.<\/p>\n
PDI Perjuangan legislator Pramono Anung Wibowo said the old
\nsystem was more practical and would take less time and money.<\/p>\n
He said the direct proportional system had been tried among
\nuniversity students in Yogyakarta, and was proven inefficient.<\/p>\n
\"It took a student 30 minutes to cast his or her ballots. If a
\nuniversity student spent that long, how about ordinary people?\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
PDI Perjuangan and the rest of the factions are also at odds
\non whether a presidential candidate must be obligated to have a
\npublic debate to allow people to judge their competence.<\/p>\n
Golkar, PAN and the National Awakening Party (PKB) said that
\nthe public debate was imperative, while PDI Perjuangan, which is
\nchaired by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, rejected the
\nproposal.<\/p>\n
The General Elections Commission (KPU) has supported the plan
\nto hold a public debate for presidential elections, but warned
\npeople against using the forum just to engage in mud-slinging.<\/p>\n
As far as the voting schedule, Ade and Samuel said factions
\nsuggested simultaneous elections, in which people voted for
\nmembers of legislative bodies and president\/vice president all at
\nonce.<\/p>\n
Ade said the arrangement would give little room for political
\nparties to consolidate among themselves at the expense of a
\ncertain candidate.<\/p>\n
He was referring to the political maneuvering by the Muslim-
\nbased parties known as the Axis Force in the 1999 presidential
\nelection which resulted in the defeat of Megawati, whose party
\nhad won the most votes a few months earlier in the legislative
\nelections.<\/p>\n
Separately, in a discussion on presidential elections,
\npolitical observer Rizal Mallarangeng opposed a plan to require
\npresidential candidates to take part in a public debate.<\/p>\n
Rizal said as long as the rule of the game were observed, a
\npublic debate to test presidential candidates was not mandatory
\nand nobody could push for it.<\/p>\n
He said even a more established country like the United States
\ndid not require (by law) presidential candidates to take part in
\na nationally televised live public debate.<\/p>\n
Rizal, who obtained his doctorate degree in Chicago, said that
\nfor presidential candidates in the U.S., public debates usually
\nserved as a forum to attract a large following without having to
\nspend money.<\/p>\n
\"There are no sanctions imposed on candidates for missing the
\ndebate. They just waste an opportunity,\" Rizal said.<\/p>\n
He said public debate was not the only way to judge a
\ncandidate's competence. \"Public debate skills do not guarantee
\nsuperb achievements,\" he added.<\/p>",
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