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)