Gen. Nasution criticizes electoral system
Gen. Nasution criticizes electoral system
JAKARTA (JP): Gen. (ret.) Abdul Haris Nasution, Indonesia's oldest living senior military figure, criticized the government yesterday, and particularly the President, for dominating the way general elections are run.
Nasution, making a rare public appearance at a seminar at the University of Indonesia, said that the 1985 law on general elections should be reformed and political parties contesting the elections should be given greater say in the way they are run.
"Government officials, who have a stake in the outcome of elections, should not be included on the organizing committees," he said.
The 1985 law stipulates that the general election should be administered by the government and led by the President.
"The President is elected following a general election. He cannot therefore be the one who conducts general elections," he said.
Nasution's military career included being Army chief of staff and later defense minister, all during President Sukarno's time. He was chairman of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly which stripped Sukarno of his power in 1967.
Nasution, 78 years old and in ailing health, has on several occasions been critical of President Soeharto's administration.
Yesterday, he said that he and other public figures who helped found the nation 50 years ago still have one more duty to fulfill, to establish a fair and correct electoral system.
"We have been careless in delaying the establishment of a more democratic law on general elections," he said.
Nasution recalled that he traveled to Canada in 1966 after he was appointed chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly to study the electoral system there.
"The political parties run the general elections there," he said, regretting that he never had the opportunity to implement the same system in Indonesia.
The retired general was one of three speakers invited to give lectures on the 1997 general election. The other two were human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis and constitutional law expert Yusril Ihza Mahendra. Around 300 people packed the auditorium of the University of Indonesia to hear them.
In his presentation, Mulya Lubis hammered home the argument that Indonesia must allow independent election monitoring committees to ensure fair and free polls.
"Independent monitoring committees can become partners to the officially-designated monitoring committee in overseeing the elections," Mulya said.
Lubis, who also teaches law at the university, said the presence of an independent committee would ensure the official committee, which is dominated by government officials, was impartial in administering the election.
He pointed to the Philippines with the National Movement for Free Elections and the Voters' Organization, Training and Education for Clean, Authentic and Responsible Elections, both of which worked closely with the government's monitoring committee, Comelec, as the country's polls watchdogs in the 1993 election.
The establishment of the independent committees is recognized by article 28 of the 1945 Constitution which guarantees freedom of association, he said.
With the next general election just over a year away, the minority parties PDI and PPP have been mobilizing support for the establishment of independent monitoring committees. Several organizations have taken up the call.
Golkar, the dominant political group, and the Armed Forces, have dismissed the idea as unnecessary but so far have made no attempt to block these independent commissions.
Mulya said that as long as the activities of the independent committees comply with the law, they should be allowed to exist.
"The presence of independent committees should not be seen as a civil disobedience movement," he said.
He said the officially-designated election monitoring committee should also exclude government officials.
He cited the example of Thailand's PollWatch, a unified but independent election monitoring committee which does not involve any government officials although it was established by the government. (imn)