House urged to rule out ABRI's voting rights

JAKARTA (JP): Two political parties have made last gasp attempts to introduce changes to the political bills by calling on the House of Representatives to remove the voting rights given to unelected members of the military in the House and to take measures to curb money politics.

On Wednesday, representatives of the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the People's Awakening Party (PKB) presented a statement to the House committee deliberating the bills in which they also called for a politically neutral bureaucracy and for electoral districts to be set up at provincial level.

Bills on general elections, political parties and the workings of the country's legislative bodies are scheduled to be endorsed on Jan. 28.

However, the final stages of deliberation have been beset by difficulties and the House has reached a deadlock over the future political role of civil servants.

The dominant Golkar has been fighting to secure the right to join political parties for Indonesia's 4.1 million civil servants, while the other factions, spearheaded by the United Development Party (PPP), want the bureaucracy to be politically neutral.

The PPP and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) want House members' electoral districts to be set up at the provincial level, not regency level as reported on Tuesday. However, Golkar and the Armed Forces (ABRI) factions, with government support, want the districts to be set up at regency level.

On Wednesday, the National Awakening Party and the National Mandate Party joined the chorus of voices calling for a neutral bureaucracy.

"Civil servants have the right to vote, but they cannot be members of political parties or candidates in the election if they want to avoid conflicts of interest," PAN Secretary-general Faisal Basri told legislators during a meeting.

Legislators present at the meeting were Soerjanto from the PDI faction, Hadi Soetrisno from ABRI, Djufrie Asmoredjo from the PPP and Yasril A. Baharuddin from Golkar.

Also present were Santoso, Sandra Hamid and Dedy Ekadibrata from the PAN and Yafi Thahir from the PKB.

On the military's right to vote, Santoso pointed out that an unelected member of the military who represents Guam in the U.S. congress does not have the right to vote. He also said that in Namibia, unelected House members were also denied the right to vote.

ABRI legislator Hadi Soetrisno said that he would study the proposal.

"It would fit ABRI's new paradigm (of influencing, not occupying)," Santoso argued.

In the statement, the two parties urged the House to take measures to prevent the government from using the safety net program to buy votes.

"It (the safety net program) could be used to buy votes," said the statement read by Faisal.

Drawing on an example from Thailand, the two parties suggested that it be made compulsory for the government to hand over the responsibility for managing the social safety net program to neutral organizations 60 days ahead of the poll.

"Adi Sasono (the Minister of Cooperative and Small Enterprises) must hand over the management of the social safety net program," Santoso said in the statement.

Earlier this week, Adi, who is a Golkar executive, said he had informed Golkar Chairman Akbar Tandjung that he would not campaign for Golkar in the run up to the election on June 7. Akbar is also the Minister/State Secretary in the government of President B.J. Habibie.

On electoral districts, the PAN and PKB said that electing House members at the regency level would result in a "loss of votes".

The two parties acknowledged that in provincial electoral districts, House members would be remote from their constituents. To surmount this problem they suggested that it should be obligatory for all candidates standing for election to have lived in the province they intend to represent for the past three years.

Regarding the composition of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the PAN and the PKB said that it should consist of 527 members of the House, 54 regional delegates and 19 delegates from societal groups.

The government has proposed a 700-strong Assembly (MPR) consisting of 550 House members, 81 regional delegates and 69 representative of societal groups.

After finishing his discourse, Faisal said: "We have said what we have to say, now it's up to the House to decide."

Separately on Wednesday, the Council for People's Mandate (MARA) and a forum of student groups urged the House to pass democratic political laws.

"If the House fails, it will lead to further riots," MARA spokesman Emil Salim warned a group of legislators led by Golkar's Abu Hasan Sazili. Emil is a former Cabinet minister.

In a related development on Wednesday, PPP faction chief Zarkasih Nur told The Jakarta Post by telephone that faction leaders had agreed that Pancasila would no longer have to be the sole ideology underpinning all political organizations. However, it will continue to be obligatory to state loyalty to it in party statutes.

"Parties can have their own organizational principles as long as they are not against the principles of Pancasila," he said.

However, faction leaders are still undecided over the future political role of civil servants, the composition of the MPR and DPR, and the military's continued unelected presence in the two bodies.

In Purwokerto, Central Java, Soedirman University rector Rubiyanto Misman said on Wednesday that 110 rectors in the province had established a network to monitor the elections. A similar network has already been set up in Greater Jakarta. (29/45/har/aan)