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)