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)