Legislative candidates to pass final screening

Legislative candidates to pass final screening

JAKARTA (JP): Future members of the House of Representatives
will undergo one more bout of screening before they take their
oath on Oct. 1, Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. said
yesterday.

Yogie, who also chairs the National Election Institute, set up
a team to check on legislators' administrative trivialities, such
as the validity of personal documents.

"The screening is compulsory," he said. Those who do not have
the necessary documents will need to have their candidacy
approved by President Soeharto.

"Without the President's signature they won't get their salary
paid," Yogie said.

Earlier, legislative candidates had to undergo ideological
screening conducted by the military. It was to make sure that
none of them had past links with the outlawed Indonesian
Communist Party or any other banned organization.

The committee, which convenes today, will complete its job on
Sept. 15. The President will have until the end of September to
sign all the documents.

"The President needs to sign each document for the 1,000-
member House and People's Consultative Assembly," Yogie said.

The 15-member screening committee will be chaired by Deputy
Secretary-General of the General Elections Committee Walujo.

Yogie advised the legislative candidates to ask themselves if
they really wanted to pursue a career as a lawmaker. If they are
not sure, he said, they have until September to change their
mind.

Some candidates, he added, have to choose to stay in the
executive branch of the bureaucracy or become House members
because they cannot hold both positions simultaneously.

"Several legislators have withdrawn their membership in the
legislative bodies because they chose a position in the executive
body," he said.

Former director general of general administration and regional
autonomy, Sumitro Maskun, who is one of Golkar's legislative
candidates, for example, is interested in working for the
Pancasila Propagation Agency.

Golkar's secretary-general Ary Mardjono acknowledged that
Sumitro preferred working for the agency.

"It is impossible for him to simultaneously hold both
executive and legislative positions," he said.

Ary said there were several other Golkar legislators who have
withdrawn their House membership because they already have
positions in the executive body. He declined to mention their
names but said they were from Central and East Java and South
Sulawesi.

Secretary-general of the United Development Party (PPP) Tosari
Widjaja said there were five PPP legislators who had withdrawn
from the DPR membership.

They are Maimoen Zubair and Karmani from Central Java,
Sjamsudimuljo from Yogyakarta, and Muslimin and Noer Moehammad
from East Java.

Tosari said Maimoen, who wants to concentrate on running his
pesantren (Islamic boarding school), chose to join the People's
Consultative Assembly. While politicians Sjamsudimuljo , Karmani
and Muslimin would like to represent the PPP in provincial
legislative councils.

Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) Secretary-General Buttu R.
Hutapea said Dimmy Haryanto, who topped the party's list of
legislators from East Java, relinquished his House membership
candidacy and would represent the party in the East Java
provincial legislative council instead. (imn)