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)