Civil servants issue likely to be dropped from bills

Civil servants issue likely to be dropped from bills

JAKARTA (JP): Two Cabinet ministers hinted on Thursday that
the controversial issue of the political role of Indonesia's 4.1
million civil servants would likely be dropped from the political
bills being deliberated by the House of Representatives, and
regulated instead by a different piece of legislation.

Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung and Minister of Home
Affairs Syarwan Hamid separately told journalists that a
government regulation on the bureaucracy's neutrality was already
in the making.

Syarwan said as quoted by Antara: "The regulations for civil
service neutrality may be included in a government ordinance."

The House has been in deadlock over the issue for days as
Golkar, invoking a human rights justification, plowed ahead with
its demand that civil servants be allowed a political role, while
the other House factions and the government argued against the
motion.

The United Development Party (PPP), the Indonesian Democratic
Party (PDI), the Armed Forces (ABRI) and the government --
represented by Syarwan -- had said that a neutral bureaucracy was
needed as a prerequisite for free and fair elections.

Separately Akbar, who is also the Golkar chairman, confirmed
that a government regulation was being prepared, but he was quick
to point out the regulation should be in line with higher
legislation.

"So, it would refer to the (No. 8/1974) Basic Law on Public
Servants," Akbar told reporters at the Merdeka Palace after
meeting with President B.J. Habibie and several other ministers.

This law does not regulate civil servants' membership in
political parties, as non-Golkar House factions have urged.

But Akbar did not specify the form of the regulation, which
could either be a government ordinance in lieu of a law or simply
a government decree.

Akbar said the regulation was being prepared under the aegis
of Coordinating Minister for Development Supervision/State
Administrative Reform Hartarto.

It was the Golkar faction which first called for the issue to
be dropped altogether from the House deliberation of three
political bills -- on elections, on political parties and the
status of legislative bodies.

Meanwhile, in a related development in the House, Golkar
legislator Yasril A. Baharuddin said faction leaders meeting on
Thursday remained undecided over another dispute, namely whether
House members are to be elected at provincial level or regency
level.

But, Yasril said, faction leaders had almost agreed on the
number of unelected House seats to be allotted to the Armed
Forces. Factions had offered between 15 and 40 out of the
proposed 550 seats of the House of Representatives.

"It's likely that an agreement can be reached tomorrow,
Friday," Yasril said.

Separately, political expert Muhammad A.S. Hikam of the
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said he was bewildered by
the deliberation on the electoral districts.

"Whether the election is to be held at provincial or regency
level is not a matter of principle," Hikam said, adding that what
was in dispute was actually the "unfairness" perceived by many
political parties.

Golkar -- supported by the government and ABRI -- argued for
the electoral districts to be at the regency level. The PPP and
PDI -- supported by political parties outside the House --
insisted that electoral districts be at the provincial level.

Golkar took up the electoral districts proposed by the
government (which has proposed a district representation voting
system rather than the proportional representation system agreed
upon by the House), namely that there would be 210 districts in
Java and Bali, and another 210 in the Outer Islands.

Assuming there will be a 500-member House, Golkar said the
remaining 80 could be shared by ABRI and House members elected
through the PR voting system. (prb/aan)