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)