Govt defends Moslem leaders' MPR exclusion
JAKARTA (JP): General Elections Institute chairman Moch. Yogie S.M. defended yesterday the exclusion of prominent Moslem figures Abdurrahman Wahid and Amien Rais from the list of 100 candidates representing various mass organizations in new People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).
After attending a House of Representatives plenary session, Yogie brushed aside questions from journalists who suggested the selection was at the President's prerogative.
"We'd better take the lineup for granted. The public cannot question or ask for changes," said Yogie, who is also minister of home affairs.
The secretary-general of the elections institute, Suryatna Subrata, said Monday the ministry had selected the 100 legislative candidates and submitted their names to the President for verification and approval. The lineup is expected to be announced this week.
Abdurrahman, better known as Gus Dur, heads the 30-million strong rural-based Nahdlatul Ulama. Amien chairs the modernist Muhammadiyah which has an estimated membership of 28 million.
Th MPR is comprised of 1,000 members -- 500 are elected members of House of Representatives while the other 500 are appointed by the government.
The 100 public figures nominated by the elections institute are part of the 500 MPR legislators appointed by the government.
Another 149 people will represent the country's 27 provinces and the remaining 251 seats go to the three political organizations that contested the May polls and the Armed Forces.
The three political factions will each receive half of the number of seats they won in the House of Representatives (DPR) in the May general election.
Golkar obtained 325 House seats, the United development Party (PPP) 89 and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) 11. Seventy- five seats have been reserved for the Armed Forces, whose members do not vote.
The 1,000 members of DPR/MPR will be installed on Oct. 1. They will convene next March to draw up the State Policy Guidelines and elect a president and vice president.
Yogie said that leading the country's largest Moslem organizations did not mean automatic qualification for the MPR.
"A mass organization leader does not necessarily represent his or her group in MPR. Neither does a person who has a huge number of followers," Yogie said.
He said experts could be included in the MPR lineup. Jimly Asshidique of the influential Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals and constitutional law expert Yusril Ihza Mahendra are a few examples of intellectuals who will join MPR.
Yogie will have an MPR seat as a representative of the bureaucracy. Another cabinet minister named for the MPR is Minister of Information R. Hartono.
Separately, PDI chairman Soerjadi said the party would announce its team for the MPR general session at the conclusion of its leadership meeting on Sept. 27.
He admitted that the party's board of executives had considered naming secretary-general Buttu Hutapea the leader of PDI's tiny faction at MPR.
Buttu, who was just an inch shy of securing a House seat, said yesterday he was ready to assume the MPR post.
Golkar secretary-general Ary Marjono said after a meeting Monday evening that the political organization would reveal its MPR representatives on Sept. 25.
The PPP will disclose its team lineup on Sept. 26, according to its deputy secretary Zarkasih Nur. (amd)