Further protests against party expulsion mechanism

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.