Government to ban 137 parties from political activities

Government to ban 137 parties from political activities

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government plans to revoke the status of 137 parties as
corporate entities following their failure to pass the
administrative screening conducted by the Ministry of Justice and
Human Rights.

Letters giving notice of the revocation are being drafted by
the ministry, which will ban the parties from staging political
activities.

An expert adviser to the minister, Oka Mahendra, said
political activities included the recruitment of members, holding
members' meeting and fund-raising.

"If they insist on continuing their political activities, it
would be better for them to form new parties and register with
the ministry (for the next election in 2009), or merge with other
parties that have passed the screening process," Oka told The
Jakarta Post.

He compared the new status of the parties to that of ordinary
community organizations, which are prevented from contesting
elections.

The plan to issue the letters was announced by justice
minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra on Monday on the sidelines of the
national congress of the Crescent Star Party which he leads.

Only 50 out of 187 parties registered with the ministry passed
the verification process. They are now being screened by the
General Elections Commission (KPU) as the final step they must go
through before being allowed to contest the 2004 general
elections.

The disqualified parties were unable to meet the requirements
set out in the political party law, which obliges them to have
branch offices in at least 16 provinces, 208
regencies/municipalities and 25 percent of the country's total
number of subdistricts.

In response to the move by the unsuccessful parties to seek a
legal opinion from the Supreme Court on the ministry's decision
to disqualify them, Yusril called on them to file a lawsuit
instead.

"We will be ready to respond to their lawsuit," he said.

A KPU member said on Monday that Supreme Court Chief Justice
Bagir Manan had informed him that the court had rejected the
parties' arguments.

Bagir said he would only issue a legal opinion in response to
a lawsuit filed by the parties.

Among the parties seeking a legal opinion from the country's
highest court are the Indonesian Nationalist Alliance Party
(PANI), the People's Interest Party, the Indonesian Progressive
Nationalist Party (PNI Progresif), the New Masyumi Party, and the
Indonesian United Muslim Party (PSII).

PSII deputy chairman M. Nur said the party hoped the court
would overturn the ministry's decision and allow them to contest
the election.

Earlier, PANI chairman Bambang Sulistomo said his party would
also file a motion with the Constitutional Court for a judicial
review of the ministry's decision, and accused the ministry of
violating Law No. 31/2002 on political parties.

KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah said even if the court decided
in favor of the parties, they would only have until Nov. 2 to
register with the commission.

The KPU is also seeking an opinion from the Supreme Court
regarding the planned establishment of a provincial office in
West Irian Jaya, which is deemed by Papuan people to be a
violation of the law on special autonomy for Papua, which is
currently overseeing West Irian Jaya.