Emil asks Habibie to set poll date

Emil asks Habibie to set poll date

JAKARTA (JP): Opposition leader Emil Salim challenged
President B.J. Habibie yesterday to commit himself to a definite
date for a new poll.

Habibie should spell out what he meant by "as soon as
possible", the respected economist told reporters after meeting
with the President at Bina Graha presidential office.

"His pledge should not be like an elastic band, which can be
stretched," Emil, one of six proreform campaigners who call
themselves opposition leaders, said.

"There must be a clear signal (from him) that the government
is serious about changing the political laws as soon as
possible."

Habibie has pledged to organize a general election and,
subsequently, a presidential election as soon as the government,
through the House of Representatives (DPR), enacts a new set of
political laws including an electoral law.

Separately, House Speaker Harmoko said the government must
discuss its plan to call for an early general election with the
legislature.

The House's leadership has written to Habibie asking that he
consulted the House's leaders and political faction leaders about
the election plans, he said.

The next general election is not scheduled until 2002, with
the presidential election the following year.

But Habibie, who rose from vice president to the number one
slot after former president Soeharto resigned last Thursday, has
come under strong pressure to call for an early election.

Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung told reporters after
the meeting between Habibie and the opposition leaders that the
government had no intention of delaying the general election and
the entire reform program longer than it had to.

"But the head of state cannot commit himself to a fixed date,"
Akbar said.

The government could speed up the technical preparations for
holding a general election, such as printing ballot papers, he
said.

"It cannot accelerate nontechnical factors, like matters
related to politics and substance. You cannot rush them."

The government must respect the constitutional process and
this means that the legislative aspects of reform must be
discussed with the House of Representatives, he said.

Working group

Habibie will establish a working group comprising public
figures and three members of his cabinet -- Minister of Home
Affairs Syarwan Hamid, Minister of Justice Muladi and State
Minister for National Development Planning Boediono -- to help
the group draw up concepts for reform.

The public will be given the chance to study these concepts
regardless of whether or not they meet their expectations before
they are presented to the House of Representatives, Akbar said.

Yesterday's meeting was the second time Habibie has met with
the opposition figures.

In the past, "opposition" was considered a dirty word. The
term "partner" was preferred.

The first meeting was held at Habibie's residence, while
yesterday it moved to a more formal setting: the presidential
office.

Taking part besides Emil were Moslem intellectual Nurcholish
Madjid, lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution, former home minister Gen.
(ret.) Rudini and Prof. Sudjana Syafei, a former rector of
Bandung Institute of Technology. Amien Rais failed to turn up as
he was apparently in East Java.

Nurcholish said that since the public was still not accustomed
to the term "opposition", he and his colleagues decided to call
themselves the Forum of Communication for Counterbalance Group,
or FKKP for short.

The group has agreed to meet regularly with Habibie, with the
next meeting scheduled for Thursday.

Buyung said the group had decided to add five more members to
accommodate calls for broader representation.

Two activists, Emmy Hafild of the Indonesian Environmental
Forum and women's rights activist Nursyahbani Katjasungkana will
join the next meeting. The other three will be drawn from
Christian and Roman Catholic communities and one from the ethnic
Chinese community, Buyung said.

Nurcholish said each of the group's members was independent
and had no pretension for representing any one group in society.

He dismissed charges that they had been "coopted" by the
government, pointing out that participants remained critical of
Habibie during the meeting yesterday.

Emil said he urged Habibie to go beyond mere slogans in wiping
out corruption, nepotism and collusive practices in the
administration.

The new government should be more "proactive" in eliminating
tensions between Moslems and non-Moslems, and between indigenous
and nonindigenous people, he said.

"Nonindigenous and non-Moslems should feel that they are
protected by the law of this country."

Buyung said the President had agreed to the proposal that
Indonesia look at the way the Philippines, South Korea and
Thailand managed to organize democratic elections in their
country after ending repressive governments.

"We're thinking of inviting friends from those countries, and
even experts from the United States who helped them organize
their elections."

Rudini said that based on his experience as home minister
between 1988 and 1993, an election was not likely in six months
without a trade off in the substance of the election.

He suggested 12 months was a more reasonable period.

Emil begged to differ, saying that Thailand and South Korea
organized their polls within a shorter period of time.

"We cannot maintain this business-as-usual attitude. We have
to find alternatives. We shouldn't use the past as our
reference," he said.

Buyung said he believed that initially the government should
allow as many political parties as possible.

Their numbers could be reduced through a natural selection
process by imposing a minimum number of votes each party must
obtain in a poll to remain in existence, he said. (prb/byg/emb)