Habibie's record

President B.J. Habibie is going for a record of sorts which the publisher of the Guinness Book of Records might want to consider for its next edition. His administration has drafted about 20 bills and asked the House of Representatives to deliberate and endorse them before the June 7 general election. Even if the House cannot endorse all 24 pieces of legislation, including one or two that were initiated by members, in the remaining four months of its term in office, we would still have to admire the government for its ability to draft so many bills in such a short time.

The bills that have been, or are about to be, presented to the House include one on regional administrations; on preventing corruption, collusion and nepotism; on national security and defense; on allocating resources between central and regional administrations; on repealing the law on referendum to amend the Constitution; and on repealing the law on subversion.

The tight legislative agenda of the current administration is a reflection of the poor state of the legal framework it inherited from the repressive government of president Soeharto and the urgency with which it needs to reform the system. Yet, while we commend the government for its hard work in trying to correct the legal structure, we question the wisdom of pushing these bills down the throats of House members, and therefore on the nation they represent, with as little debate as possible.

With limited time for debating each bill, the general public, as in the 32 years of Soeharto's regime, will once again be sidelined in the process of formulating important state policies. Since these bills will not be subject to extensive public debate, they will fail to reflect the aspirations of the people. These new laws will not be all that different from the ones they replace. They will simply reflect the political agenda of those in power today, including Habibie himself, the Golkar party and the Armed Forces (ABRI), which together control the House.

We have already seen how these three elements in power conspired to push the House to endorse three political bills -- around which the June 7 elections will be organized -- by the Jan. 28 deadline set by the government. Objections raised outside the House, particularly by the new political parties vying to contest the election, were virtually ignored. Many of these new parties, which were too busy consolidating themselves, will probably only realize that the system grossly favors Golkar closer to election date, by which time it will too late to ask for revisions.

The bill on regional administrations, submitted last week, shows poor preparation and fails to live up to the government's promise of more autonomy for the regions. In its present form, the bill will simply confirm the overriding powers the central administration wields over the regions.

ABRI's agenda is most clear in the plan to present a bill on national defense and security, which will allow it to recruit and train civilians for a new force that has been called different names: the Rakyat terlatih civilian militia (Ratih), People's Resistance (Wanra) and People's Security (Kamra). So confident is the military of a swift passage, even in the face of strong public protests and objections, that it has started recruiting civilians for the program. By moving ahead before the legislation is put in place, ABRI is guilty, if not of flouting the constitutional process, at least of confirming the public's perception that the House is a mere rubber stamping agency for the government's agenda.

While no one will question the fact that the country faces a Herculean task in reforming the political system, Habibie's administration, which after all is transitional, will be well advised to limit its legislative agenda to essentials only. Its priority has been clear from the beginning: organize a truly democratic general election. It should leave the business of making other legislative changes to the next elected government. By enacting these undemocratic laws, the government is only creating unnecessary work for its successor, which will have to repeal them before enacting new legislation more representative of the people's aspirations.

In trying to accomplish much in as little time as possible, Habibie could end up achieving nothing but a collection of imperfect, if not useless, laws. Instead of securing entry in the Guinness Book of Records, his achievement will probably find its place among the collection of trivia at the Museum of Records in Semarang. For that is what these new pieces of legislation will end up as: a collection of trivial, but grossly wasteful, undertakings.