Legislators vow to cut ABRI's DPR seats

JAKARTA (JP): Legislators vowed on Wednesday to fight to reduce the number of unelected seats allocated to the powerful Armed Forces (ABRI) in the House of Representatives (DPR).

Under the terms of the government-sponsored draft law on general elections, the military will be allocated 55 of the 550 seats in the House on an unelected basis.

However, Golkar's Abu Hasan Sazili said his faction would offer the Armed Forces 25 seats, while Zarkasih Nur from the minority United Development Party (PPP) faction said 15 would be sufficient.

The Moslem-based PPP was the only faction that opposed the allocation of unelected seats to the military in last week's Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). It argued that only elected representatives of the people should be allowed to sit in the House.

However, it failed in its bid to have the military expelled from the country's legislatures, losing a vote on the matter in which the four other factions in the Assembly -- ABRI, Golkar, the regional representatives and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) -- supported a continued military involvement in politics.

Article 6 of the resulting MPR Decree No. 14/MPR/1998 stipulates that the House and the regional legislatures (DPRD) shall comprise of elected members of political parties and hand- picked members of the Armed Forces. The Decree also states that the number of seats allocated to the military will be reduced "gradually and will be further regulated by law".

Zarkasih said 15 seats should do for ABRI under the present circumstances, arguing that number would: "... match the number of military commands it has across the country".

He branded as irrelevant Golkar's argument that ABRI should be given 25 seats, a number based on the minimum 5 percent of seats that a political party must win in the upcoming election in order to qualify for the following general election in five years time.

"ABRI is not a political party, is it?" Zarkasih said.

Sazili had earlier used the "5 percent argument" to support his faction's proposal to offer the Armed Forces 25 seats in the House.

Both were speaking about the three political bills which the DPR resumed deliberating on Wednesday. The bills will be further deliberated with the government in an open session scheduled for Nov. 23.

The unelected seats allocated to the Armed Forces have been the frequent target of student-led public protests since the downfall of former president Soeharto in May this year, among them demonstrations leading up to last week's clashes in Jakarta that left 15 people dead.

There has been growing public pressure for the Armed Forces to leave politics altogether, but the military has insisted any such withdrawal must take place gradually.

Both Sazili and Zarkasih are members of the 83-strong House Special Committee (Pansus) set up to deliberate the political bills. The bills cover general elections; the structure and function of the DPR, the provincial legislatures (DPRD) and the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR); and political parties.

The legislators will have 27 working days to complete their deliberations and the bills are expected to be passed on Jan. 28, according to Sazili, who chairs the special committee.

"We'll work day and night," Sazili said.

The government-sponsored bill on the structure and function of the country's legislatures entitles the Armed Forces to 55 unelected seats in a proposed 550-seat DPR. The military would also receive the same number of seats in a scaled down MPR with 700 seats. The MPR currently has 1,000 seats.

When asked by journalists, Zarkasih and Sazili said they would propose a slightly smaller DPR comprising of 500 members, with the Assembly retaining the 700 seats outlined in the bill.

Under the proposed bill, the MPR will embody the 550 members of the DPR, 81 regional representatives and 69 representatives of professional groups.

On the bill on general elections, both Zarkasih and Sazili said the factions had agreed to alter the proposed combination of district and proportional representation to an improved system of proportional representation.

"It is to accommodate the aspirations of the new political parties," Zarkasih said.

Both Zarkasih and Sazili also said the factions would propose that foreign observers be allowed to monitor the general election scheduled for May or June next year. (aan)