Campaign kicks off to ditch unscrupulous politicians

Campaign kicks off to ditch unscrupulous politicians

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Government critics, students, and non-governmental organization
activists on Tuesday launched a nationwide drive aimed at urging
the people not to elect "dirty rotten politicians" in the 2004
elections.

The campaign, according to the proponents, was part of their
efforts to free the country from corrupt state officials.

They, however, were still undecided on whether they would
publish the list of unscrupulous politicians or simply provide
the people with some indicators.

The movement came just one day after the Indonesian Survey
Institute (LSI) announced its latest finding that 68 percent or
1,469 of 2,160 respondents from 372 villages and cities wanted
economic recovery and job opportunities as well as cheap basic
commodities to be the main priorities after the elections.

Indonesia will hold the legislative election on April 5 and
the presidential election on July 5. Twenty-four parties have
been declared eligible for the elections.

Economist Faisal Basri said the movement had prepared lawyers
in anticipation of defamation suits filed by politicians.

"The most difficult thing is to identify the bad politicians
from the good ones," he said at a press briefing here on Tuesday.

Also at the press briefing were political analyst J. Kristiadi
from the Centre of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS),
rights activist Asmara Nababan, secretary of Transparency
International (TI) Indonesia Emmy Hafild, and former legislator
Indira Damayanti Soegondo.

The group would use four crucial issues as a guide to
differentiate bad politicians from good ones. The four issues are
corruption, environmental destruction, human rights abuses, and
domestic violence/extramarital affairs.

Human rights activist Munir, who also joined the campaign,
said he would identify the eligibility of politicians based on
their human rights track records.

"I think all current legislators are ineligible for reelection
because they refuse to declare the Trisakti incident as a case of
gross human rights abuses," he said, referring to the killing of
four Trisakti students that triggered massive riots across the
country in 1998.

Separately, Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) coordinator
Teten Masduki acknowledged that fellow activists were still
debating on whether they would publish a list of unscrupulous
politicians or only provide the people with criterion for the
eligibility of politicians.

"There is no decision yet. We hope this campaign will become a
warning for political parties not to take the nomination of their
cadres lightly," he told The Jakarta Post by phone from Denpasar,
Bali, where he was to launch the same campaign.

The activists are to jointly declare the campaign on Dec. 29
in several cities nationwide.

Director of the Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO) Smita
Notosusanto, meanwhile, doubted the movement would be effective.

Law No. 12/2003 on elections, she said, did not instruct the
General Elections Commission (KPU) to issue a temporary list of
legislative candidates for people's scrutiny.

"This means there is no opportunity to scrutinize the
legislative candidates. I am afraid this movement will not be
effective," she said.

Smita, however, urged political parties to publish their
temporary lists of legislative candidates for public scrutiny.

Political parties have to submit their legislative candidates
to the KPU by Dec. 29 at the latest.

Faisal emphasized that the campaign would be a difficult
process. "If the campaign fails, I am afraid we will have a
president whose backers are thugs. We don't want that to happen,
do we?" he said.