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.