ABRI defends major presence in the House
ABRI defends major presence in the House
JAKARTA (JP): Despite growing public calls for the Armed
Forces' (ABRI) presence in the House of Representatives to be
brought to an end, the military implored on Friday to be allowed
55 seats in the legislature.
During a session of the House special committee deliberating
the political bills, the ABRI faction's spokesman on the
committee, Budi Harsono, proposed a reduction of 20 seats from
the current allocation of 75.
He defended the number, saying that the Armed Forces still
wanted to make a strong, positive contribution to the nation.
"ABRI proposes 55 seats in the hope that it can maintain its
strong input in the House," Budi said.
The House is currently deliberating bills which would include
setting the number of seats allocated to the Armed Forces faction
and the overall size of the House and People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR).
Armed Forces members do not vote in general elections but are
allocated representatives in the 500-member House.
However, since president Suharto resigned in May, there have
been feverish calls for the Armed Forces to lose their right to
House seats.
A new Assembly decree stipulates that the role of the Armed
Forces will gradually be reduced over time.
The dominant Golkar faction in the House has proposed ABRI be
given 25 seats while the United Development Party (PPP) has
called for just 10.
The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) faction said it would
reveal its stand on this issue in next week's deliberation of the
political bills.
The Armed Forces faction's call for 55 seats is in line with
the bill submitted by the government.
Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid told journalists after
Thursday's session that despite having put forward the proposal,
the government would leave the House to decide the issue.
"Let the House's working committee make a decision on it. The
government will respect the committee's decision," he said.
The special commission failed to reach an agreement and
eventually agreed to defer the issue to the working committee.
The draft bill put forward by the government proposes that the
next House should comprise 550 members while the Assembly will
consist of all House members plus an additional 150 appointed
representatives.
The current MPR has 1,000 members.
The deliberations also failed to break an impasse over the
proposal that the Assembly should meet annually instead of the
current quinquennial schedule.
All factions except Golkar appeared willing to accept the
idea.
The Ministry of Home Affair's director general of
administration and regional autonomy, Ryaas Rasyid, said the
government had proposed an annual meeting with the aim of further
empowering the highest legislative body.
"At the least, the annual MPR meeting would be a warning stick
for the government that it is subordinate to MPR," he said.
"(But) It's no problem for the government if the House objects
to empower the Assembly and other state institutions," he
quipped.
Sociopolitical
Political observer Arbi Sanit on Friday called for the
dissolution of the sociopolitical affairs directorate in the
bureaucracy and the neutrality of the Armed Forces in order to
help make the next general election democratic, fair and free.
Speaking here during a round-table discussion on election
monitoring, Arbi maintained that the sociopolitical affairs
department in the bureaucracy and the military in the provinces
dominated the electoral process by isolating political parties
and pressing voters to vote a particular way.
"The directorate of sociopolitical affairs in the Ministry of
Home Affairs and its structures in provincial, regency and
district administrations should be dissolved because they were
established by the New Order regime to maintain the status quo,"
he said.
The military, especially military districts should be barred
from participating in the electoral process to ensure that they
remained neutral, he said.
"The military's main task is to maintain security, not to
intimidate voters," he charged. (rms)