Contentious debate on civil servants rages on

Contentious debate on civil servants rages on

JAKARTA (JP): Lawyer Bambang Widjojanto said on Friday that
Golkar were correct to argue that barring civil servants from an
involvement in political parties was tantamount to a violation of
human rights.

However, Bambang, who is an executive of the National
Consortium for Legal Reform, also lashed out at Golkar for
employing double standards by simultaneously campaigning to
retain the Armed Forces' unelected presence in the House of
Representatives.

Deliberation of three political bills, including one which
will rule on whether public servants are to be allowed to join
political parties, has reached a stalemate. Golkar is dead set on
giving civil servants' a political role, while the United
Development Party (PPP) faction has threatened to boycott all
further proceedings if Golkar gets its way.

For three decades under Soeharto's New Order regime, civil
servants were obliged to vote for Golkar.

The House, under pressure to pass the bill by the Jan. 28
deadline, has agreed to postpone a decision pending the outcome
of high level discussions between Minister of Home Affairs
Syarwan Hamid, Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto, Golkar
chairman Akbar Tandjung, PPP chairman Hamzah Haz and Budi
Hardjono, who chairs a government-sanctioned faction of the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).

Widjojanto pointed out that barring civil servants from taking
up political party membership contradicted the principle of
"universal suffrage".

Universal suffrage is the right of all members of society to
vote.

Widjojanto suggested that a "hidden agenda" could explain why
Golkar is adamant that the military should continue to be given
unelected seats in the House.

Although offering less than the 55 unelected seats proposed by
the government, Golkar, the PPP and the PDI have agreed to
support a continued unelected military presence in the House in
the name of "national consensus".

"The inconsistency invites suspicion that Golkar is pursuing a
hidden political agenda," he said.

Widjojanto urged the House to free the country's 4.1 million
civil servants from all regulations that tie them to a single
political party.

He cautiously welcomed a recent statement from Syarwan Hamid
in which the home affairs minister said the bureaucracy should be
"neutral" in the upcoming poll, but qualified his optimism by
saying: "I doubt it means (the stipulation for civil servants) to
have a single affiliation (to Golkar) has really gone."

He said the House should introduce a clause into the new law
on political parties stating that: "All rules that directly or
indirectly prevent a person from taking up membership of a
political party must be nullified."

Golkar legislator Abu Hasan Sazili, who leads the special
committee deliberating the bills, welcomed the suggestion.

"...but the political rights of civil servants simply must not
be eliminated," Sazili insisted.

Golkar has cited the United States, Australia and Japan as
examples of countries where civil servants are allowed to join
political parties.

This particular line of argument, however, was dismissed by
another Golkar legislator, Sutradara Ginting, who called it
"incomprehensible."

Golkar, he pointed out, failed to take into account the fact
that the structure of bureaucracies vary from country to country.

"Recruitment, sanctions and other regulations pertaining to
civil servants differ from place to place," he said.

"Only one regulation (namely allowing civil servants to hold
political party membership) is not enough to facilitate
comparison with civil services in other countries," he said.

He suggested a compromise under which civil servants would be
allowed to join political parties but not to sit on their
executive boards.

"It must be made illegal for partisan civil servants to use
public facilities to serve the needs of their parties," he added.

The House will resume deliberating the bills on elections,
political parties and the status and structure of the legislative
bodies in an open session on Jan. 25. The bills are scheduled to
be endorsed on Jan. 28.

Among issues yet to be resolved is the controversy surrounding
civil servants; whether Pancasila should be the founding
principle of all political parties; whether civil servants can
stand for election; the structure of electoral districts; the
organization of the election campaign; the size of each
legislative body; and the number of seats allocated to the
military. (aan)