House urged to form transitional government
House urged to form transitional government
JAKARTA (JP): An association of 167 pro-democracy
organizations urged the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) on
Friday to use its planned special session in November to create a
transitional government to replace President B.J. Habibie's
administration.
Representatives of the National Coalition for Democracy, led
by playwright and activist Ratna Sarumpaet, made the demand in a
meeting with members of the Assembly's United Development Party
(PPP) faction, chaired by Faisal Baasir.
Ratna accused the current government of being incapable of
leading the nation out of the crisis, saying that only a
transitional government could improve the situation.
The transitional government would be tasked with starting to
pull the nation out of the economic crisis, and with preparing
and holding a fair and clean general election, she said.
Ratna also said the officials of the transitional government
should be "populist" leaders, free from corruption and acceptable
to the people and the international community.
Such a government, she said, would not discriminate against
certain elements of society.
Ratna also led SIAGA, a loose association of individuals and
organizations who supported opposition figures Amien Rais and
Megawati Soekarnoputri during former president Soeharto's regime.
According to Antara, the group also submitted their own
proposals for political laws, which the activists drafted during
a recent national dialog.
"The existing political laws have to be abolished because they
restrict people's freedoms," she said.
The National Coalition for Democracy is a working group of 167
pro-democracy organizations from 18 provinces. Their recent
meeting in Ciawi, Bogor, West Java, was held on Sept. 12 and
Sept. 13, during which they came up with the idea of establishing
an interim government.
Faisal Baasir said the group's demands and proposals would be
discussed further in the faction's next meeting. He said that
even though the faction understood the demands, they would have
to be processed through the proper channels.
"The House has certain rules and mechanisms, so our faction
can't just bring (your) demands to a plenary session of the House
just like that," he said.
However, he conceded that many of the thoughts contained in
the group's draft political laws were similar to those held by
the faction.
The group said it also planned to meet with the dominant
Golkar faction. (swe)