Free, fair polls needed to be ensured: Experts

JAKARTA (JP): Political science experts told legislators yesterday that it was more important to ensure free and fair polls than to debate over what kind of electoral system should be adopted.

Speaking at a hearing of House of Representatives Commission II for home affairs, political scientists Mochtar Pabottinggi and Miriam Budiardjo said that past problems with elections were not caused by the system itself, but by certain parties who manipulated elections to serve their own ends.

"It's not the system which should be changed, but the way in which we approach general elections," Mochtar Pabottinggi of the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) told legislators.

The two experts pointed out that in the past, elections deviated from the basic principles laid out to ensure they were free and fair.

"We should not blame the system but the New Order government who manipulated the true purpose of elections to serve their own interests," Mochtar told reporters after the meeting.

He said the Soeharto government had used elections to perpetuate its power, not to uphold popular sovereignty through democracy.

Mochtar, who heads LIPI's Center for Political Studies, warned that merely changing the electoral system would have little impact on the political conditions in the country unless the nation, and in particular the government, were thoroughly prepared.

Mochtar was formerly chairman of a team set up to study the current electoral system by former president Soeharto in 1995.

His report concluded by saying that democracy would only be achieved when the people themselves elected candidates to the House of Representatives instead of having them appointed through a proportional system.

Currently voters choose one of the three recognized political organizations -- Golkar, the United Development Party (PPP), and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).

Seats in the House are divided between the parties according to the number of votes they receive. Each party then selects its legislators from a previously prepared list until it has no more seats to fill.

There are 425 elected seats in the House. A further 75 are allocated to the Armed Forces faction, who do not stand for election.

The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) is made up of all members of the House and a further 500 delegates from the regional assemblies, all of whom are selected and appointed by the president.

Miriam also said that the present system could serve the nation's needs if elections were implemented in a fair and just manner.

She said that in the forthcoming polls the government should abolish the "floating mass" policy which bans political activity in districts and villages and should also allow civil servants freedom to vote for whichever party they want.

Civil servants are currently required to vote for Golkar.

Both Miriam and Mochtar seemed inclined to support a continuation of the proportional electoral system which they said could better accommodate a multi-party system. A district electoral system, they argued, would only benefit large parties.

"In a district system, votes gained by candidates from a losing party would not count for anything," Miriam said.

"A district electoral system could be introduced after the next election because by then there will have been enough time to discuss the concept with the public," she added. (byg)