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"Several legislators have withdrawn their membership in the legislative bodies because they chose a position in the executive body," he said.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Ary said there were several other Golkar legislators who have withdrawn their House membership because they already have positions in the executive body.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)