Bureaucrats, ABRI 'must not sit in MPR'

JAKARTA (JP): United Development Party (PPP) chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum said over the weekend that cabinet ministers, governors and Armed Forces (ABRI) leaders should no longer be recruited as members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Addressing the opening of PPP's leadership meeting at the party's secretariat on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta, Ismail said the Assembly, along with the House of Representatives (DPR), should perform its duties purely as messengers of people's aspirations and remain free from government intervention.

"The Assembly should be a true representation of the people and the supreme power controller of the country," Ismail, who is better known as Buya, said Saturday.

"The ministers, Armed Forces commander and others of his rank, governors and all civil servants should not be MPR members," he asserted.

Ismail was referring to PPP's proposal on a revision of the 1985 laws on the structure and position of the MPR and the DPR, on general elections and on political parties.

In the past few years, almost all cabinet ministers and provincial governors have been members of the Assembly.

The Assembly is comprised of 1,000 members. The House with its 500 legislators comprises half of the Assembly, the rest are appointed by the president.

Ismail maintained that apart from the Armed Forces representatives, all members of the Assembly should be elected.

"The (new) law should at least delineate that all MPR members are directly elected by the people, except for, perhaps, the Armed Forces, who are appointed to the DPR with a number that can be negotiated," he said.

Because Armed Forces members do not vote in elections, they are accorded 75 seats in the House.

Electoral law

Speaking on PPP's proposal for changes in the electoral law, Ismail said honest and fair should be added to the already existing four principles of general elections -- direct, general, free and confidential.

He said election supervision should be held by an independent body consisting of neutral figures, while the government should act only as a facilitator.

He also said that election day should be held on a holiday or declared a holiday.

"The government apparatus, both civil and military, from middle level down should not side with any poll contestants," he remarked.

Speaking of revisions to the law on political parties, Ismail said there should be no restrictions on the ability to establish a political party or for the general public to be affiliated to any party of their choosing.

"People should also be free not to join any party.

"Civil servants should be free to join and not to join any political party. They should not need to obtain their superiors' permission if they want to become party members," he added.

In the past, civil servants were required by the government to vote for the dominant Golkar.

Speaking to journalists, Ismail said he was not troubled by the fact that several organizations which merged in 1973 to form the PPP were now breaking rank and establishing their own parties.

"PPP members are free to join and leave the party as they please," he said, referring to the Indonesian Syarikat Islam Party (PSII).

Syarikat Islam announced Friday that it would go its own way in the political arena when its chairman Taufiq R. Tjokroaminoto said it was readopting its old name and forming its own political party.

Another PPP element, the Tarbiyah Islamiyah Association (PERTI), has also indicated a plan to regain its glorious past as an independent party.

Ismail, however, said that the PPP would remain a solid and unified party despite the withdrawal of several elements.

"PPP is not a federation of organizations, whose individual organizations can withdraw their membership just like that," he said, "PPP will remain a merger of four political parties."

As part of the national consensus, four Moslem political parties -- Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), PSII, PERTI and the Indonesian Moslem Party (Parmusi) -- merged and formed the PPP in 1973.

Ismail said the PPP would be unperturbed if Syarikat Islam later gained government approval to contest general elections.

"If that happens, then we will contest general elections together," he said. (imn)