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)