Bureaucrats, ABRI 'must not sit in MPR'

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)