Factions split over 4 million civil servants

JAKARTA (JP): Factions on the House of Representatives' Working Committee were divided into two camps over whether Indonesia's 4 million civil servants should be allowed to be involved in political parties.

Danial Tandjung of the United Development Party (PPP) said the committee's closed session on Friday ended in a deadlock. The legislators eventually agreed to seek a breakthrough by consulting their leaderships and lobbying among them.

"The working committee's session will resume on Monday and all factions are expected to have reached agreement on the crucial issue by then," he said.

Danial said that the PPP, the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) and Armed Forces (ABRI) factions wanted the civil servants to be neutral, while major faction Golkar wanted them to be allowed membership of political parties.

Djufrie Asmoredjo, chairman of the working committee deliberating the draft law on political parties, warned of "widely negative impacts" arising from civil servants' participation in political parties.

For instance, they could discriminate against certain groups needing their services, Djufrie said.

In addition, "civil servants from non-ruling parties may face difficulties in developing their career and ABRI (Armed Forces), which is of the same status as the civil servant corps, will also demand that they are allowed to be involved in political parties," said Djufrie.

Yahya Zaini of Golkar said civil servants are Indonesian citizens with political rights. "Barring them from political activities is against human rights," he said.

Yahya also dismissed the PPP faction's warning that the civil servants corps should be separated from ABRI since the latter was assigned to be in charge of defense and security.

Besides, defining civil servants' neutrality as barring them from politics did not guarantee a democratic government, he said.

He cited how civil servants in Thailand can join political parties and how its government was more democratic than Indonesia's.

Under former president Soeharto's New Order regime, civil servants were forced to be loyal to and to vote only for Golkar.

The government-sponsored bill seeks to bar civil servants and servicemen from joining political parties, saying they have the right to vote but not to be elected.

Meanwhile, in a concurrent session of the working committee in charge of deliberating the structure of legislative bodies, legislators again failed to break through a deadlock over the presence of the military in the House of Representatives (DPR).

Budi Harsono, chairman of the working committee, said all factions were expected to reconsider their stance on the matter in order to enable the committee to reach a win-win solution.

"This is a very crucial issue and all factions have their own stands which are difficult to bridge," he acknowledged.

Harminto Agustono of PPP insisted his faction would fight so ABRI can have only two percent or ten House seats.

"We will defend the current size of the DPR and we will fight for a decrease of ABRI representatives in the House from the current 75 to only 10 in the 1999-2004 period," he said.

If the factions failed to reach a common stance, the issue should just be settled through a vote, he said.

Golkar has proposed five to 10 percent of 500 seats at the House for appointed ABRI representatives while PDI is still undecided over the issue.

ABRI supported the draft law which proposed 10 percent of the proposed 550 seats in the House to allow it to play a role again in the coming period. (rms)