40 new parties protest proposed political laws

40 new parties protest proposed political laws

JAKARTA (JP): Sixty executives of 40 new political parties
made a fresh appeal to the House of Representatives on Thursday
to drop the political bills they have been deliberating and
introduce new ones which accommodate people's democratic
aspirations.

"The three draft laws are part of the ruling Golkar's
deceitful strategy to win the next general election. New ones
should be made. New political parties are ready to make new laws
if the House refuses (to drop them)," said Edwin Sukowati, an
executive of the National Democratic Party.

He said he was sure the government-sponsored bills, if passed,
would give Golkar an unfair edge in the election planned for next
May.

"Golkar will surely take advantage of the draft laws which are
restrictive toward the existing parties... and stipulate that
regional representatives in the People's Consultative Assembly
are elected by the provincial legislative councils which are
already dominated by Golkar," he said.

La Rose, the chairwoman of the Women's Party, said the
political bills would curtail the actions of political parties
established since the beginning of the new, supposedly
politically open, era in May.

"All political parties should be allowed to contest the next
general election and those which get less than 5 percent of the
500 seats contested should be allowed to be represented in the
House," she said.

The draft law on political parties requires them to get at
least one million supporters' signatures in order to participate
in the general elections and those which get less than 5 percent
of the contested seats should ally with other parties before they
can be represented.

La Rose, also a novelist, said both the government and the
Supreme Court had no authority to dissolve political parties.

"They should be dissolved by their own congresses," she said.

The draft law on political parties seeks to grant authority to
the Supreme Court to disband political parties whose statutes
contravene the law.

Supeni of the Indonesian National Party (PNI) criticized the
political bill which aims to prevent civil servants and active
service personnel from being on political parties' executive
boards.

"All citizens, including civil servants and service personnel,
have political rights to elect and be elected in a general
election," she said.

Agus Miftach of the Indonesian People Party (PARI) criticized
the draft laws for allocating too many seats to the Armed Forces
and introducing too many requirements and restrictions on
political parties.

He blasted the stipulation that legislative candidates had to
collect at least 300,000 signatures from residents of a district
that he/she wanted to represent.

He also said the Armed Forces should not be represented in the
House and that the 55 seats to be allocated to the Armed Forces
should be contested by political parties.

Achmad Rustandi of the Armed Forces (ABRI) faction and
Bachtiar Chamsjah, secretary of the United Development Party
(PPP) faction, said the legislators had, over the course of their
deliberations, succeeded in changing 80 percent of the submitted
bills.

"In its deliberations, the House's special committee has made
many changes so that the bills are now 80 percent different from
their original texts," said Bachtiar.

He said that his faction was also against the Armed Forces'
representation in the House and would raise the matter in the MPR
Special Session next month.

Andi Matalatta, chairman of the House's Golkar faction, denied
the accusation that Golkar and the government had colluded in
preparing the bills in an attempt to win the general election.

"The draft laws are open to changes and Golkar is committed to
preparing a democratic government," he said. (rms)