Govt role in election must be reduced: Researchers
Govt role in election must be reduced: Researchers
JAKARTA (JP): Leading political researchers say a limited
government role is a prerequisite to a fair and honest general
election, itself vital to putting the country back on its feet.
Led by Mochtar Pabottingi and Indria Samego, a team of
political scientists from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences
(LIPI) underlined the social, economic and political rut left
behind by former president Soeharto's regime.
"It's a political emergency that is even worse than the one
left behind by (founding president) Sukarno because this one is
compounded by the economic crisis," the team said on presenting a
set of recommendations on how the country should go about
repairing its tattered social fabric, including through the
general election.
The researchers pointed out how Soeharto's resignation, unlike
Sukarno's exit from power, had not been followed by political
integration among elements in society and an outpouring of global
economic assistance to Indonesia.
"Even on the farthest horizon, no sign of these two things is
seen. What we have, instead, are accumulation of potential for
political disintegration and even bigger possibility of economic
bankruptcy."
They put forward recommendations for the government in its
preparations for the general election and presidential election
next year. The team concluded that one of the main causes of
"distorted" results of elections under president Soeharto's
regime was the government's dominance in all stages of the
general election process.
"Because of the government's domination in the elections,
principles of democracy were trampled and cheating and
manipulation occurred," the team said.
Attended by scholars and activists, the presentation also
served as a forum for debate over the team's recommendations on
how the laws that govern Indonesian politics should be drafted.
The researchers said the law on general elections must ensure
the government only acts as a facilitator and that poll
organizers be independent and neutral.
They also suggested that the General Elections Committee be
abolished and replaced with a secretariat which organizes general
elections, headed by the secretary-general of the Ministry of
Home Affairs.
President Habibie's administration has set up a team, led by
political science professor Ryaas Rasyid, to draw up laws to
replace the existing political laws. The latter have been widely
criticized as curtailing democratization and serving only as a
machine to perpetuate Soeharto's regime.
Pabottingi detailed in his introductory remarks how the
government over the past 30 years maintained a political system
that rejected calls for accountability and negated people's
sovereignty.
The system was also structured in such a way to make it
impossible for people to introduce corrections and in which the
principle of checks and balances was virtually nonexistent.
"Rather than people's sovereignty, what we had was the
sovereignty of the power," he said.
He said new political laws must correct the mistakes of the
previous administration. The first thing to be done would be to
introduce limitations on presidential term, he said. Efforts must
be made to uphold the sovereignty of the people through
improvement of legislative bodies.
"The principle of checks and balances between the branches of
executive, judiciary and legislative must be upheld."
Pabottingi also said that among the most important thing the
country must do is to return to its raison d'etre to ensure no
group in society would be subject to discrimination.
Indria said the next law on political parties must assure that
only capable and acceptable people be recruited. (swe)