Golkar's obstinacy

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