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)