House vows to endorse election bill today
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The House of Representatives is determined to bring the election bill to a plenary meeting for endorsement on Tuesday despite some contentious issues.
Factions in the special committee debating the bill have expressed their readiness to settle the unsolved issues through voting in the plenary session, since they and the government are still at odds over the contentious issues.
The contentious issues include the representation of women in the legislature, the prohibiting of government officials to campaign for any political party and the banning of staging election campaigns on university campuses.
"Although factions failed to reach a consensus on the contentious issues, the committee will go ahead with its plan to bring the bill to a plenary meeting to be endorsed," Agustin Teras Narang, chairman of the special committee, said on Monday.
Leaders of General Elections Commission (KPU) in charge of organizing elections have repeatedly urged legislators to speed up the deliberation of the bill, otherwise any delay in the bill's endorsement would disrupt the staging of the 2004 general election.
Teras headed two days of meetings with home minister Hari Sabarno representing the government to try to resolve the contentious issues.
Following the meetings, which took place at a hotel in Jakarta and the House building, nine factions in the special committee reached a consensus on several issues, including the long debated problem on electorate areas.
Golkar, the second largest faction in the House, insisted previously on making regencies or municipalities electorate areas while the other factions wanted provinces or parts of a province as an electorate area.
"After the meetings, Golkar eventually agree to accept other factions' proposal," said Firman Jaya Daeli of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).
The committee also agreed that the number of House seats would be set at 550, an increase of 50 from the current composition. The increase was made apparently to accommodate the rising number of regencies following the formation of more than 100 regencies over the last three years.
The special committee has the right to reach a consensus on the crucial issue, but its members and the government were trapped in official requirements for legislator candidates so that the issue was left unresolved.
Legislators were divided over the rule that legislator candidates could not be former members of the defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) or affiliated organizations.
Eight factions, including Golkar, National Awakening Party (PKB) and United Development Party (PPP), defended the inclusion of the controversial article while PDI Perjuangan, which is chaired by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, wanted to drop it.
The official version of the Sept. 30, 1965 aborted coup that was blamed on the PKI has been questioned following the collapse of president Soeharto's regime in May 1998, with historians and politicians calling for a review of Indonesian history books.
PDI Perjuangan spokesman Zaenal Arifin emphasized that the article should be dropped in respect of human rights.
According to Zaenal, the removal of this article would not necessarily mean that Indonesian people would forget how the PKI attempted to overthrow a legitimate government.
The factions in the special committee were also divided on whether state officials should be banned from campaigning or not.
Many government officials, including the President, the Vice President and many ministers, are members of political parties.
The factions were also at odds over the granting of a percentage of House seats to women legislators.
Golkar, PPP, PKB, KKI and Reform factions supported the clause while PDI Perjuangan, PBB, military/police and PDU factions opposed it.
"Each political party will nominate its best candidates. This is not about a quota for women but about quality," said PDU spokesman Sayuti Rahawarin.
A number of women activists attending the meeting instantly unfurled banners reading: "Rejecting the quota of 30 percent for women legislators is equal to rejecting democratization."