General election must be successful: Soesilo

General election must be successful: Soesilo

JAKARTA (JP): The government has challenged the public to help
make the May 29 general election a success.

"It'd be awful for such a religious, civilized nation like
Indonesia if its people are unable to make the five-yearly
general election secure, smooth and successful," said
Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo
Soedarman.

He also called on the community to help prevent unrest and
avoid clashes among supporters of the three political parties.

"Only several days to go before the election campaign starts,
and (a month) before polling day, and yet we still hear of minor
clashes among supporters of political organizations," he said
after chairing a limited ministerial meeting on politics and
security.

Soesilo was referring to the recent clashes among supporters
of the United Development Party (PPP), Golkar and the Indonesian
Democratic Party (PDI), in several Central Java towns.

He said that, though only minor incidents, the clashes had
disrupted relations among supporters of the political groups.

Soesilo did not rule out the possibility that the clashes were
rigged by "a third party" seeking to foil the general election.

The election campaign will begin Sunday. Polling day will fall
on May 29.

Moslem scholar Amien Rais said Indonesia needs to be wary of
certain parties, both local and from overseas, seeking to disrupt
the general election.

"We need to be aware. Judging from various riots and social
unrest recently (we can see that) there are groups employing
certain tricks to disrupt, even foil, the election," Amien said
after a routine discussion at the Tamansiswa campus in
Yogyakarta, Wednesday.

Amien, whose opinion on both local and foreign politics is
often sought, said he could not predict the situation leading up
to the election.

"I'm just hoping that all parties will exercise self-
restraint, because our people have suffered enough from unrest
recently," he said.

"Don't let us add to it by burning or damaging houses of
worship. That's not what our religions tell us to do. We all have
to learn from the unrest," he said.

He said every group in the community should "turn over a new
leaf".

"I believe the government has started to take some concrete
steps. For instance, it just held the first cabinet meeting on
poverty alleviation. Let's hope that it will bring results for us
all."

Amien was one of the first scholars to attribute the outburst
of violence over the past year to the poor distribution of wealth
and access to resources. He said people are already frustrated
because of the dire poverty and can be easily ignited like "dry
wood".

President Soeharto chaired the first cabinet meeting on
poverty alleviation Tuesday and decided to hold it every three
months.

Security

Soesilo also said yesterday the Armed Forces would not provide
exclusive security protection for any of the political groups.

"They will have equal treatment," he said. "We won't give (PDI
chairman) Soerjadi exclusive security protection in his campaign
activities."

The recognized-board of PDI had expressed concern that its
campaign activities might be disrupted by supporters of
Soerjadi's rival, ousted PDI chief Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Soerjadi had to cancel a number of meetings in several Java
cities due to strong opposition from Megawati supporters. In some
cases, mobs even tried to attack him.

Megawati, elected in a party extraordinary congress in
Surabaya in 1993, was removed from her seat in a government-
backed congress in June, last year. The congress then appointed
Soerjadi to replace the late president Sukarno's eldest daughter.
(imn/23/swe)