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)