Legislators should defend people's interests: Wahono

JAKARTA (JP): House of Representatives Speaker Wahono urged legislators yesterday to defend people's interests so that people will not take to the street to vent their frustration.

He said House members should accommodate people's demands and listen to their grievance so that there will be no more "democracy forums in the streets".

"We have to be able to accommodate the wishes people channel through constitutional means," he said when inducting 26 House and People's Consultative Assembly members from the Armed Forces (ABRI) faction.

Wahono said there is an encouraging tendency for oppressed people to seek help from their representatives in the House for the hardship they face.

They turn to the House with problems about labor disputes, land appropriation by development projects, eviction and social injustice.

"As House members, we have to be more sensitive to public demand," Wahono said.

Cynics have branded the House as a mere rubber stamp institution which more readily accommodates the interests of the government than those of the people they represent.

The House's popularity as an institution to address people's complaints somewhat declined with the establishment of the National Commission on Human Rights in 1993.

Wahono advised the new House and Assembly members to safeguard the image of the Armed Forces dwi fungsi, or dual function, doctrine, which allows ABRI to play politics as well as see to defense.

"The dual function doctrine is good only if ABRI is able to solve state problems now and in the future," said Wahono, who is a retired lieutenant general.

According to Wahono, the ABRI faction in the House has played an important role in the promotion of democracy.

In the future, the Armed Forces' political role will be to encourage the public's creativity and initiative in development without repression.

Meanwhile, 29 members of the Armed Forces take over the seats of retiring Golkar members in the House next year.

The 29 retired officers to strengthen Golkar's legislative front are former ABRI representatives of the House, where the military reserves 100 of the 500 seats.

Golkar Secretary-General Ary Mardjono said that the retired servicemen will assume their posts for the 1997/2002 period. To join Golkar, an ABRI member should retire and associate with the veteran organization, Pepabri.

"Pepabri will submit their names to Golkar before the list can be made public," he said after attending the inauguration ceremony. (pan)