Golkar's obstinacy

It would be very wrong if the ruling Golkar grouping continued to persist in defending its stance that civil servants can still become members, including of the boards, of parties when the people demand that civil servants be truly capable of assuming a neutral attitude in the general election scheduled for June 1999 (Kompas, Jan.5).

The many violations in previous general elections during the New Order era have undoubtedly caused considerable trauma among our people. During those past elections, Golkar made civil servants into its tool to mobilize votes and assure its victory.

Golkar's reasoning is that civil servants should be allowed to remain as members of political parties to uphold human rights. Generally speaking, the reason is valid because all citizens, including civil servants, have the same rights in the nation's life including the right to be board members of political parties. However, the matter of civil servants must be seen as a special case where human rights issues cannot be narrowly interpreted and used as a reason. We cannot compare the case of civil servants in our country with other countries like the U.S. or Australia, where the order of political life and the implementation of democracy are in such an advanced stage so that possible cheating in a general election linked to party membership is unlikely to happen.

The June general election planned is, in my opinion, a platform where we will start to learn how to practice democracy and politics in a better way. This year's election also has very important value because it is seen as the starting point for us to get out of the current hobbling crisis. The general election must be capable of producing people's representatives and a government that has strong legitimacy from the people. Any indication of rigging in the general election will cause dissatisfied groups to question the matter, and we will thus find it difficult to end the crisis. I think we have no other choice than to limit to a minimum the possibility of rigging in the general election.

With the background of problems, it irrelevant for Golkar to be obstinate in defending its wish that civil servants can still become members of political parties. In my opinion the idea can only be implemented at a time when we are really mature in our political life, and our democratic life is running well. At the present time what we need to do is to show to the people that we can implement democracy in the proper manner, one of the characteristics of which is to carry out the general election in a truly honest and just way.

EMELIUS MINSIN

Pontianak, West Kalimantan