Feisal denies reports on govt's men for KPU

Feisal denies reports on govt's men for KPU

JAKARTA (JP): The home affairs ministry's secretary-general
Feisal Tamin denied on Friday having been appointed as one of the
five government representatives on the yet-to-be-established
National Elections Committee (KPU).

"I am not competent," he said in response to media reports on
the issue. "I would not be able to meet the requirements to sit
there."

"Asked or ordered, I won't sit on the elections committee," he
said, visibly upset by the reports that he and four other
officials have been chosen to sit on the body that will organize
the June 7 election, the first for Indonesia after 32 years of
Soeharto's oppressive New Order rule.

He criticized the press for failing to check with him before
running the reports.

Several newspapers and television stations reported on
Thursday that Feisal along with Dunidja, the director general for
socio-political affairs at the same ministry, Oka Mahendra, an
expert staffer at the Ministry of Justice, Maj. Gen. Sudi
Silalahi, an assistant to the Armed Forces' Territorial Affairs
chief, and Afan Gaffar, who helped draft the political laws, have
been picked by President B.J. Habibie to represent the government
on the elections committee.

Several new political parties and members of the Team of
Eleven, which is in charge of preparing the preliminary stages of
the elections, responded unfavorably to the reports. They said
there were many other officials with good reputations and
credibility who might sit on the committee.

Feisal insisted the government has yet to appoint its
representatives to the committee. He said the home affairs
ministry would first propose names of five officials for
Habibie's approval.

Separately, however, Afan Gaffar confirmed he had been asked
to sit in the committee by Dunidja. "This makes sense because I
am one of the people who seriously study elections in Indonesia,"
he said.

Andi M. Mallarangeng, the secretary to the Team of Eleven,
told The Jakarta Post that government representatives on the
committee should be credible and of good reputation because they
would play a decisive role in running a free and fair election.

"You can imagine what will happen if the government
representatives favor a certain electoral contestant as they have
equal voting rights to the contesting parties' representatives',"
he said.

Andi said that until Friday evening, only Partai Republik (the
Republic Party) and Partai Mencerdaskan Bangsa (the Party for the
Sharpening of the People's Mind) have registered with the Team of
Eleven.

The team is scheduled "to visit" political parties, including
their provincial chapters and regency branches, to verify whether
they have met the requirements set by the new law on general
elections.

The government, Andi said, should choose only qualified and
credible representatives to display that it is committed to a
fair and free election. (rms)