House urged to rule out ABRI's voting rights

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)