Army takes lion's share of House seats

Army takes lion's share of House seats

JAKARTA (JP): From 38 unelected seats to which legislators
from the Indonesian Military (TNI) will be appointed, the Army
will get 17, the Navy and Air Force will each get eight and the
Police will get five seats.

TNI spokesman Maj. Gen. Syamsul Ma'arif made the announcement
after a meeting on Tuesday between political party leaders and
officials at the office of the General Elections Commission.

Despite formal separation of the police from the armed forces
on April 1, the National Police are still represented in the
House of Representatives (DPR), the highest law making body,
because their political rights were not made clear.

The House has 462 seats. Members also become part of the 700-
seat People's Consultative Assembly, the highest body which the
president answers to according to the Constitution.

Assistant to the Armed Forces Territorial Affairs Chief Maj.
Gen. Sudi Silalahi explained that the 1997 Law on National Police
was not revoked. The law mentions that the police is part of the
Armed Forces.

Since the separation, the military has reintroduced the
original term of the Armed Forces, the TNI. But the officers said
the military's faction in the House and Assembly would still
retain the name ABRI (Armed Forces) faction.

Commission chairman Rudini suggested Monday that the names of
TNI nominees should be announced although they were not elected,
to enable people to pass judgment on them and raise complaints if
necessary.

However although Minister of Defense and Security/TNI
Commander Gen. Wiranto raised no objections of announcing the
nominees, he said on Tuesday that raising complaints against them
would not be possible as the legislators were appointed and
selected by an "internal mechanism" within the military.

The subject of unelected legislators from the military has
been controversial since deliberations of new political laws last
year. Many have said the military should no longer play a
political role through its seats in the legislature.

The compromise finally reached was to have 38 seats for the
military instead of the former 75 at the House of
Representatives.

Each elected seat at the House of Representatives represents
450,000 votes.

Wiranto said on Tuesday that the list of nominees had been
presented to the Commission but later in the day a Commission
official said Wiranto had "forgot" to sign it.

Sudi Silalahi said current deputy House Speaker of the ABRI
faction, Hari Sabarno, and faction chairman Achmad Roestandi were
included in the list of future legislators.

"The future legislators have been carefully selected by the
military academies and National Police," he said.

Separately a group called the Indonesian Family for Peaceful
Elections led by political observer Eep Saefulloh Fatah will run
an anti-violence campaign on Sunday at the Senayan Sports Hall in
Central Jakarta.

"We will gather one million signatures from all families
across the country by Friday. Many people are worried about the
June 7 poll and the probability of outbreaks of violence.

"Together we can avoid falling as victims to violence in the
campaigning period. All party leaders are welcome to join the
event."

Also in the campaign for peace were noted Muslim scholar
Nurcholish Madjid, Karlina Leksono, Munir, Adnan Buyung Nasution,
Adi Andojo, Goenawan Mohammad and Erna Witoelar. (edt)