Court order needed to dissolve Golkar: Political observers
Court order needed to dissolve Golkar: Political observers
JAKARTA (JP): Increasing demands to disband Golkar Party, the
political vehicle of former president Soeharto, are
understandable but unrealistic, political observers said on
Thursday.
J. Kristiady, a political observer from the Centre for
Strategic and International Studies, and Maswadi Rauf, a
political expert from the University of Indonesia, said they
could understand why students and President Abdurrahman Wahid's
supporters in East Java were demanding the government dissolve
Golkar.
However, they said Golkar was a legitimate political party and
could only be dissolved by the courts. Therefore, without a court
order, the demands cannot be met without violating both the norms
of democracy and the law.
"Both the students and the people can make such demands but
they are unacceptable because the party's presence is guaranteed
by the law.
"If they do not like Golkar they should not vote for the party
in the next general election. (Disbanding Golkar) would set a bad
precedence for democracy in the country, as other people could
make similar demands against parties they do not like," Kristiadi
said.
Maswadi acknowledged that Golkar was a symbol of the
corruption, collusion, nepotism and repression of the New Order
regime, but this did not justify taking illegal action to
dissolve the party.
"This sort of stigmatization in politics is not appropriate in
the reform era. Of the utmost importance is that we must fight
against corruption, collusion and nepotism and kill their
viruses, regardless of the ruling party," he said, adding that
should Golkar win the next general election, it would have to be
accepted as the ruling party.
Edwin Henawan Sukowati, the chairman of the National Democrats
Party (PND), said Golkar could be dissolved by the courts if the
authorities investigated what he said where Golkar's violations
during the 1999 general election.
"The political chaos has a lot to do with the unfair elections
in 1999," he said.
Edwin, who is a former member of the General Election
Commission, said the Supreme Court refused to look into thousands
of alleged violations committed by Golkar during the general
election.
Speaking later in the day, President Abdurrahman Wahid said he
was against attempts to "indiscriminately" attack everything
associated with the past regime.
"Of course, we have to make a clean break with the past, but
it cannot be done indiscriminately... we have to look at things
carefully since not everything from the past is wrong,"
Abdurrahman said while speaking to university students.
He said breaking with the past should be done "in phases", and
that the country's reform movement could not be completed
overnight. (rms/byg)