Experts propose district system for 2004 elections

JAKARTA (JP): Political and legal experts said on Tuesday the district system should be implemented for the 2004 elections to put an end to the national leadership crises.

They also urged a direct presidential election in 2004.

Ramlan Surbakti, a political lecturer at Surabaya's Airlangga University, said past elections had proven that the proportional system was not effective for choosing qualified legislators, because voters had limited knowledge of the legislative candidates.

"The fact that most legislators have been under fire for their lack of concern for the problems the people are facing has a correlation with the electoral system of past elections," he said on the first day of a two-day seminar to discuss a number of bills set to be reviewed by the House of Representatives.

Bills on general elections, political parties and the composition of the People's Consultative Assembly, the House and provincial and regency legislatures are slated to be submitted by the government to the House for endorsement by the end of this year.

Sri Sumantri, a constitutional law expert from Padjadjaran University in Bandung, West Java, said direct presidential and vice presidential elections should be held simultaneously with the 2004 general election to allow the people to elect a legitimate president and vice president.

"But a direct presidential election can only be held if the Constitution is amended," he said.

Proposals to implement the district system and a direct presidential election in 2004 have been opposed by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and the Golkar Party, the two major parties in the House. The two parties have said the people of Indonesia are not politically ready for these election systems.

Both a coalition of non-governmental organizations and the Research Institute for Democracy and Peace have proposed a combination of the proportional and district systems.

Ramlan said that with the district system it would no longer be necessary to use the electoral threshold in general elections, because all that would matter was that legislative candidates won the support of their constituents. The electoral threshold is the percentage of votes a political party has to receive to be eligible to contest the next general election.

"All parties would be allowed to contest the elections and only popular and qualified candidates would win the support of voters," he said.

Sri Bintang Pamungkas, the chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Union Party (PUDI), criticized the articles on the electoral threshold contained in the draft bill on general elections. He said any political party had the right to contest elections in the era of the multiparty system.

"Even a group of local people in a district has the right to establish their own party and contend the elections to secure seats in their regency legislature," he said.

Bagir Manan, a law professor at Padjadjaran University, criticized the draft bill on general elections, saying it was too detailed. He said all the practical and technical matters contained in the bill should be contained in a government regulation to ensure their long-term acceptability.

"We need to have a law that will be acceptable for a long time," he said.

A number of experts also criticized the draft bill that regulates the numerous tasks of the General Elections Commission (KPU). They insisted the commission should have as its sole mission the organizing of free, fair and efficient elections.

"The commission's detailed tasks cannot be regulated in a government regulation. Of utmost importance is that the commission not function as a rival legislative body, as happened in the past," said Ismail Sunny, a constitutional law professor at the University of Indonesia (UI).

Maswadi Rauf, a political expert from UI, defended the planned reintroduction of the recall mechanism, as stipulated in the draft bill on general elections. He said it would allow an honor council at the House to take action against legislators who violate the body's code of ethics.

"Legislators who are found guilty of violating the code of ethics should be recalled," he said.

The recall mechanism, which was used during former president Soeharto's New Order regime to silence outspoken legislators, was dropped from the law on general elections to prevent the arbitrary dismissal of legislators. (rms)