Independent team needed to assess election: Lopa

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights proposed yesterday that an independent team be set up to assess the May 29 general election.

Commission Secretary-General Baharuddin Lopa said in a seminar on Elections, Human Rights and Laws that results of the study could be used to improve electoral laws.

Lopa said the team was needed, especially because of the widespread poll-rigging alleged by the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).

"The team would greatly help improve electoral laws. The alleged rigging has underlined the need to improve the law," he said.

The PPP and PDI have repeatedly demanded that the 1985 Election Law be revised, saying that it is "undemocratic" and favors the government-backed Golkar party.

The two parties demanded that all three parties be allowed to help run the general election. Under current law, the election is organized by the government.

In an apparent bid to attract more voters, the PPP had proposed a bill to revise this law before the May 29 election.

Yesterday's seminar at Tjokroaminoto University also featured Dahlan Thaib from the Indonesian Islamic University and Zulkifli Halim of Tjokroaminoto University.

Lopa said the proposed team should include party representatives, academics and intellectuals.

"If the study is conducted by the government, who will believe its results?" he said.

Lopa said political parties should be free to choose their own legislative candidates and free to air their ideas so that democracy could grow.

On the last election, Lopa said that all three parties should fulfill their election promises to eradicate corruption and collusion in the bureaucracy if they did not want to lose the people's trust.

"People cannot wait for them to fulfill the promises," he said. "Campaigners made big promises and it would be a big sin not to fulfill them."

Lopa said he was wondering whether the campaigners realized that eradicating corruption was not easy, as many people imagined.

"I have spent 30 years working hard on it. It's truly a tough job," said Lopa, a former director general for correctional institutions.

Other big promises that people want to see fulfilled are free education, creation of employment and empowerment of small business.

"It would be great if the political parties could fulfill their promises and miserable if they could not," he said. (23/pan)