Luring but excessive element

Luring but excessive element

The General Elections Commission (KPU) has again become an
object of public scorn and a target of complaint due to its
sluggish working system. The focus this time is its Team of 15,
which is responsible for the selection of organizations to be
represented in the interest group faction in the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Last week the Indonesian Buddhists Association was among those
who protested the selection process and questioned the nomination
of an unaccredited Buddhist organization as a community
representative.

Minister of Agriculture Soleh Solahuddin and Indonesian
Farmers Association chairman Siswono Yudhohusodo also blasted the
KPU for apparently failing to provide seats for representatives
of the farming community.

Executives of the Indonesian Association of Small
Entrepreneurs and the Ansor Islamic youth organization
demonstrated outside the KPU office on Friday to protest the
selection process.

Although the results of the selection have not been officially
announced, copies of the list of the team's nominations have
circulated among the public. All these complaints were lodged
amid dwindling public patience because there is so little time
for other reform agendas. Society earlier grumbled over the
commission's slow vote count.

While the KPU is now dominated by minor political parties, who
failed to win even minimum support in the recent general
election, the problem it is now tackling is complicated enough.
The 1945 Constitution, which stipulates that interest groups must
be represented in the MPR, is not explicit about the matter. The
Constitution is known for its brief, vague articles.

The deliberation of this problem by the team has been made
more complicated by the blatant personal interests of each member
-- notably the smallest parties, each of which is overly
ambitious to get its own people into the faction so that they
will have a means to channel their voices in the country's
highest constitutional body.

If only all the team members realized the true significance of
their mission and the complexity of the selection process,
perhaps they would not use the sessions as a place to fight for
their own interests. In this age of openness, where new
professional organizations have been mushrooming, to select the
real representative for each profession has become more
difficult.

For example, it is not easy to select a representative of the
press because there are now scores of journalists associations.
Ideally, each of the group representatives will focus on the
interests of his or her respective group's aspirations.

But with all the personal interests and the already existing
problems, the team's meetings appear to be nothing more than bull
sessions where one hears the names of not only genuine
professional groups but also of non-governmental organizations,
many of which have never been heard of.

On the other hand, to the most victorious political parties
which have fielded presidential candidates, the 65-member
interest group faction will be very seductive. How many of their
own men they get accepted into the faction will be of great
consequence to them.

However, objectively speaking, the new faction will be starkly
awkward -- if not redundant -- in a democratic MPR because all
grown-up citizens, including members of professional
organizations, used their right to vote for their favorite
political party in the June polls.

A professor of constitutional law at Gadjah Mada University
was right in his recent call for the next MPR session to phase
out the interest group faction for that very reason.

If it is too late for the General Session to take such an
substantial decision, the KPU could now rule that members of this
faction do not have the right to vote in presidential elections.
Members of the faction would have to concentrate on issues
related to their professions only. It would be more ethical and
responsible.