Independent poll watchdog criticized for passivity
Independent poll watchdog criticized for passivity
JAKARTA (JP): Scholars and political observers have criticized
the passivity of the newly-established general election watchdog
and urged it to come out with more concrete programs.
Speakers at a seminar yesterday said that the Independent
Election Monitoring Committee should operate in rural areas where
electoral supervision is poor. The seminar was sponsored by an
organization called the Institute of Information Flow Studies.
Laksamana Sukardi, an activist of the Indonesian Democratic
Party, said that: "rural areas deserve greater attention from the
committee because supervisors from outside the government-backed
party, Golkar, are powerless when face to face with the
authorities," he said.
"The practices of vote-rigging, coercion and manipulations
have been commonplace in many out-of-the-way places," he said.
According to Laksamana the poor educational background of the
witnesses is one of the main reasons for their shortcomings.
Supervision comprises a large variety of activities from
ballot casting to transporting the ballot boxes from the voting
booths to the local administration offices.
So far the committee has been accused of causing troubles
because the authorities believe that it has a cynical perception
of the management of general elections. Laksamana said the
committee should hold a meeting of minds with the government on
the matter.
While the head of the Constitutional Law Department of the
University of Indonesia, Yusril Ihza, told the seminar that there
should not be any doubt about the constitutionality of the
Committee.
"The National Constitution guarantees freedom of association."
he said.
Other participants in the seminar asked how the committee
would oversee the practice of polling in the areas as large as
Indonesia with only 50 people.
Mulyana W. Kusumah, vice chairman of the Committee, said that
its operation does not reach the village level but has urged
local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to set up their own
watchdog organizations for the same purpose.
The committee chairman, Goenawan Mohamad, added that local
NGOs have established two election watchdogs in Yogyakarta and
one in Semarang.
The second watchdog was set up in Yogyakarta by 30 NGOs on
Wednesday, one week after the national election watchdog
committee was established there. The new organization, called the
Independent Election Supervision Committee, according to its
working coordinator Satya Widodo, is not a rival to the national
committee but will work together with it.
Goenawan Mohamad, the chairman of the presidium of the
Independent Election Monitoring Committee, said yesterday the
committee aims to make the next general election more credible,
peaceful and orderly.
"The image of an impartial and honest referee in all fields,
such as sport, business and politics, has evaporated in this
country," Goenawan, the editor of the now-defunct Tempo news
magazine, added.
Goenawan said in Yogyakarta Wednesday evening that the
Committee was set up to help the government hold a clean general
election.
"So, there is no authority whatsoever which has the right to
ban an organization which was founded by the people.
"The government cannot ban it. If it intends to do so it
should be done through a judicial process because the birth of an
organization is decided by the populace not by the authorities,
especially provincial governors," he told newsmen.
The governors of West and East Java have stated that they
would oppose the establishment of any watchdog committee in their
respective provinces.
In Semarang, a professor of constitutional law at the
Diponegoro State University said that the establishment of the
watchdog committee is not against the law as long as it does not
intervene in the electoral process.
"Every citizen has the right to supervise how the general
election is held," Soehardjo said. (16/Har/02)