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)