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)