Further protests against party expulsion mechanism

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) joined on Tuesday opposition against the plan to revive political parties' power to expel dissenting members from legislative bodies, arguing the move would pave the way for authoritarianism by the parties.

The bill on political parties, being deliberated at the House of Representatives, stipulates that legislators are dismissed from the legislative body on which they serve should they be fired by their party for a perceived offense.

The government is also drafting a new bill on the composition of the House and the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which will require the House to form a disciplinary committee to supervise the performance and conduct of legislators.

NGO activists rejected the move to authorize parties to recall their representatives from the House, saying it would harm the country's young democracy and curb the political rights of individuals.

"Giving more power to parties could prompt an abuse of power," Director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (Pusdeham) Kacung Maridjan told a hearing with the House special committee debating the bill on political parties.

He asserted that the dismissal of legislators from the House should involve their regional constituents.

The constituents should be allowed to decide whether or not it is necessary to dismiss their representatives from legislative bodies through voting, he added.

"The recall mechanism, as regulated in Article 11, could be understood if our elections adopted a purely proportional representation system.

"But because the elections will use a combination of proportional and district systems, the removal of House members using such a mechanism is incorrect," Kacung said.

Indonesian Parliament Watch (Parwi) shared the view, saying parties should not be empowered to unseat their legislators merely by removing them from the political group.

However, it underscored that the parties should require approval of the House to recall their non-conforming representatives there.

Similarly, political analysts have warned that authorizing parties to dismiss their members in legislative bodies would be tantamount to the repressive move adopted by Soeharto's authoritarian regime in the past.

They said that there should be no mechanism to fire legislators unless they have been found guilty of committing a criminal offense.