Australia gives A$10m aid to RI for poll

Australia gives A$10m aid to RI for poll

By Riyadi

NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): Australian Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer announced here on Wednesday that his government would
provide an initial sum of A$10 million to help Indonesia prepare
for and conduct the general election.

Downer told journalists on the sidelines of the meeting of the
Australia Indonesia Ministerial Forum that Australia was prepared
to increase the assistance to A$15 million, if it was needed, to
ensure a free and fair election.

"The Australian government regards the election in June in
Indonesia as a watershed not only in Indonesia's political
development, which it clearly is, but for the Indonesian economy
as well.

"It is very important for the international community to make
a major effort to provide assistance to Indonesians so that this
election could be as free and fair as possible," Downer said.

For its part, Australia could only benefit from the emergence
of a stable and democratic Indonesia, he added.

Downer said that Australia had already provided technical
assistance to Indonesia through the Australia Electoral
Commission.

This assistance included advice in the selection of sites for
voter registration and polling, the layout and configuration of
polling stations, the designing and distribution of ballots, and
the vote-counting process. Australia also worked to strengthen
the Indonesian electoral committee and to develop a common
monitoring methodology among non-governmental election monitoring
groups.

Downer noted that Australia, in extending this assistance, was
working together with the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP), the agency responsible for coordinating international
donor support for Indonesia's elections.

The UNDP has developed a program of election support
activities for donor consideration. The activities include the
production and distribution of voter education material and
independent election monitoring.

Downer, who led the Australian delegation at the bilateral
ministerial meeting, said: "If the elections succeed, I think we
can expect a fairly rapid return of business confidence in the
Indonesian economy. And also, if successful, Indonesia will be
transformed into the world's third largest democracy."

Coordinating Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry
Ginandjar Kartasasmita said the government was committed to
conducting the general election as freely and as fairly as
possible because there were too many things at stake.

Political stability and the recovery of Indonesia's economy
hinged on the success of the general election.

"So, we are banking so much on the process and the results of
the election," he said.

If the election proceeds peacefully and fairly, and its
results are accepted by the majority of the people, Indonesia's
economy is expected to recover and foreign investment to return.

Ginandjar predicted that the country would book positive
growth in the second half of this year after seeing negative
growth in the first semester.

"Thus, our target of zero growth for this year would become
reality."

He noted that if the election put credible people in the House
of Representatives, and the elected president could form a
credible government, Indonesia would return to the positive
growth path by 2002.