Group says stamp out New Order's vestiges

Group says stamp out New Order's vestiges

JAKARTA (JP): The Petisi 50 Working Group called on the nation
on Tuesday to work together to root out vestiges of the New Order
political system.

The renowned group of longtime government critics defined it
as a system which exploited the military and bureaucracy for the
benefit of powerholders.

"Let's crush this regime... politically, through reforms,"
group leader Ali Sadikin, a retired Marine lieutenant general who
is also a former Jakarta governor, said at his residence.

In a media conference to present the group's year-end
statement, members warned of attempts from the government, the
Golkar political grouping and the Armed Forces (ABRI) to retain
such a system for their gain.

Signatories to the statement included Ali, former minister
Aziz Saleh, former National Police chief Gen. (ret) Hoegeng Iman
Santoso, another former minister and journalist S.K. Trimurti,
and former Atma Jaya University lecturer Chris Siner Key Timu.

Efforts to cling onto the old system were evident from ABRI's
continued presence in the House of Representatives (DPR) and
Golkar's outreach to curry support among the bureaucracy.

In deliberations of political laws at the House, the Golkar
faction has continued to argue that civil servants should be free
to join political parties while the government, through its
drafted bills, says the 4.1 million civil servants should remain
neutral.

The group charged the moves were designed to give Golkar the
edge in polls slated for next June.

"The election system is directed to give the victory to Golkar
which is the New Order's political machine," the group said in
its statement read by Chris Siner.

The system had only served to bring the nation to its current
crisis also marked by moral decadence, it said.

The group agreed elections were the only way to end
uncertainty in the drive toward reform and democracy.

But they doubted that the much-awaited new political laws --
expected to guarantee a free and fair poll -- would be produced
"by a regime and House of Representatives inherited by the New
Order's political system and culture which is antidemocratic and
antipeople's sovereignty".

Ali also added that such a regime would never find faults with
itself but instead would keep finding scapegoats, which was
"arrogant".

The Group said: "a demand for a Provisional People's
Consultative Assembly and Provisional House of Representatives is
still an absolute and logical demand."

The legitimacy of state institutions, including the
representative bodies, have been accepted by some and rejected by
others, who say they are the results of last year's elections
which were manipulated for the benefit of Soeharto's
administration.

The group, set up in 1980, became known for its criticism of
the government under Soeharto, a peer of many of its members.

Among their public statements on Soeharto's government --
which Ali said on Tuesday numbered about 300 -- were their
condemnation of the 1984 massacre in the Tanjung Priok harbor
area and the 1989 killing of Muslim activists in Lampung. (aan)