Campaign 'most violent' since new order govt

JAKARTA (JP): This year's election campaign is the most violent in the history of the New Order government, observers have said.

Political scientist Syamsuddin Haris and sociologist Loekman Soetrisno said in separate interviews over the weekend that the campaign violence is very serious, as could be seen in the number of deaths.

The Armed Forces has said that at least 73 people had been killed between April 27 and May 15, mostly in traffic accidents during unruly street rallies.

Reports said that apart from traffic accidents, many fatalities and injuries occurred during clashes between supporters of the three political parties and between supporters and security officials.

Hundreds of public facilities, office buildings, cars and party paraphernalia were also damaged by rally participants. There were also reports of security personnel beatings supporters during rallies.

In comparison, election campaigns were relatively peaceful until 1982.

That year, security officials arrested more than 200 stone- wielding people in Lapangan Banteng, Central Java.

The incident occurred when hundreds of people threw stones at a Golkar rally which was attended by thousands of people. No fatalities were reported but more than 60 people were wounded.

The 1987 campaign proceeded without any major incident. But in 1992, 23 people were reported to have died and about 200 were injured during rallies. Officially the deaths happened in traffic accidents.

A researcher at the National Institute of Sciences, Syamsuddin, said it was ironic that this year's violence occurred after the introduction of strict rules.

"This means there is no correlation between strict rules and the number of campaign victims," he said.

He said the problem therefore was not in the campaign rules but in the need to meet peoples' demands for more political participation and a better political system.

"But because their demands are not met, people see the campaign as a chance to let off steam. If the political system was open to begin with, this wouldn't happen," he said.

A lecturer at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, Loekman, said it was sad to see people attack each other just because they wore different colored shirts.

"The problem lies in our political education," he said.

He said people were pressured to such an extent before elections that they lost self-confidence and the ability to make decisions for themselves.

"When the campaigns begin, they can only see it as a place to break free, violate all the rules and take revenge ... Elections are no longer seen as a chance to choose peoples' representatives, because nothing has ever changed following an election," he said.

Loekman said the satgas (party members who act as security officials for their party) contributed to the violence.

The satgas, who wear Army-like uniforms, tend to bully people around, he said.

"Just because they wear those uniforms, they think they can physically pressure people. And in Indonesia, where 'the clothes make the man' this really works," he said.

He said satgas should be eliminated from campaigns.

Both Loekman and Syamsuddin said violations would continue in future campaigns if there was no change in Indonesia's electoral system.

"People will continue to be violent if the system continues to introduce legislative candidates the people don't know and allow ballot manipulation, for example," Syamsuddin said.

Loekman said it was time the government was less involved in elections and left it to the political parties.

He said the government had been intervening too much and too obviously in politics.

"The government should stop looking for a scapegoat when violence occurs ... It's about time the government realized there is something wrong with our political education," he said.

Loekman warned that the situation could be the beginning of civil unrest.

"It's still embryonic, but the government must pay close attention to it," he said. (pwn)