Discord marks KPU's selection of interest group faction

JAKARTA (JP): Discord intensified over the General Elections Commission's (KPU) selection of groups to be represented in the interest group faction in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Suggestions that certain members of the KPU's Team of 15 manipulated the selection process prompted strong protests. Political observer Riswandha Imawan of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta went as far as to call on President B.J. Habibie to take over the selection of the 65 interest group representatives, despite the lack of a legal basis.

"Despite having no legal basis, the President should take action to avoid the alleged collusion and nepotism in the selection ... because the elections commission has lost the public's confidence," Riswandha told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He said the elections commission was no longer seen as a prodemocracy and proreform institution, "since most of its members were busy fighting for their own political interests".

"In such a situation, it will be impossible for the KPU to conduct the selection fairly and objectively," he said.

Riswandha warned that further glitches ahead of the Assembly's General Session, scheduled to open on Oct. 1, would cause the public to lose their patience and create political uncertainty.

"The commission should be reminded that most people have begun to lose their patience waiting for certain changes, a new era and an end to the prolonged political and economic crises," he said.

Habibie should circumvent the possible uncertainty by cooperating with the major political parties to objectively and fairly select the interest group representatives, he said.

The interest group faction is predicted to play a decisive role when the 700-seat Assembly meets to elect the country's next president.

The Indonesian Buddhists Association is among those who have protested the elections commission's selection process for the interest group representatives, questioning the nomination of an unaccredited Buddhist organization as a representative for the community. Minister of Agriculture Soleh Solahuddin and Indonesian Farmers Association chairman Siswono Yudhohusodo also blasted the KPU for failing to provide seats for representatives of the farming community.

Executives of the Indonesian Association of Small Entrepreneurs and the Ansor Islamic youth organization demonstrated outside the KPU office on Friday to protest the selection process.

Although the results of the selection have not been officially announced, copies of the team's nominations have circulated among the public.

Abolition

Muchsan, a professor of constitutional law at Gadjah Mada University, called on the next Assembly to phase out the interest group faction because multiparty general elections had made it irrelevant.

He said the next Assembly should make the abolition of the interest group faction its first order of business.

"The MPR can decide to annul the faction's voting rights in the General Session and presidential election," he said.

Separately, Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid said he supported the idea of phasing out the interest group faction from the Assembly.

However, he said, "the faction could be phased out only if the 1945 Constitution was amended". He was speaking during a meeting with traditional and religious leaders in Bandung, West Java, on Friday.

Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation chairman Bambang Wijoyanto said the interest group faction in the Assembly had become a burden because of its controversial existence and members.

"The faction should be phased out from the highest legislative body because most groups in society participated in the recent elections and their aspirations can be channeled through political parties," he told the Post here on Friday.

"Many sides will question the KPU's credibility in (selecting) representatives of the interest groups, (because many of those chosen) are affiliated with the ruling Golkar Party," he said.

He said the elections commission's reputation had been badly tainted. "The KPU no longer has the credibility to conduct the selection since it has turned into a power struggle among minor parties (represented in the commission)."

Bambang also questioned the alleged collusion in the nomination of interest groups with links to certain political parties.

Many interest groups from small-scale companies, cooperatives and mass organizations, such as the Indonesian Cooperatives Board, the Association of Young Indonesian Businessmen, the Federation of All-Indonesian Workers Union and the Indonesian Youth Committee, are linked to Golkar, he said.

He alleged the presence of these organizations in the next Assembly was aimed at ensuring President B.J. Habibie's victory in the presidential election. (43/44/rms)