Major parties back KPU's code of conduct

JAKARTA (JP): All major political parties, excluding the Golkar Party, gave a thumbs up to the General Election Commission's campaign code of conduct barring political parties from recruiting state officials, including ministers, from campaigning.

Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung has protested the commission's ruling, saying ministers could take time off from their official positions to take part in the campaigns.

Both the government and the commission on Monday were still at odds over the ruling. The Supreme Court released on Monday a letter giving its legal opinion on the issue, relinquishing all responsibility on the decision to the President.

Following are some comments on the issue:

Deputy chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Jacob Tobing: "PDI Perjuangan is in support of the KPU ruling because it reflects people's aspirations ... Many government officials, including ministers, cannot make a clear separation between their personal interests and their official jobs.

"We fear ministers may use state facilities if they are allowed to campaign; and local officials, including governors and regents, will certainly give special treatment to ministers if the ministers come to provinces and regencies to lead campaigns."

Qomari Anwar, chief of the Center for Research and Development at the United Development Party (PPP): "It would not be a serious problem for PPP if party chairman Hamzah Haz (State Minister for Investment) and deputy chairman A.M. Saefuddin (minister for food and horticulture) do not campaign.

"However, both the government and the election commission should be realistic and let ministers take unpaid leave or be freed from their daily tasks to allow them to campaign for their parties."

He said the code of conduct regarding officials' involvement in campaigns should be understood in the context that the nation is in a "sick" condition in which the public has had bad experiences with officials abusing their power in campaigns.

In a normal condition, he said, all officials, including the President and ministers, should be allowed to campaign because it is their obligation to fight for their party.

Iskandar Muhaimin, secretary-general of the National Awakening Party (PKB): He said a paternalistic culture still pervades Indonesian society.

"Most people, including local officials, will certainly give special treatment to ministers campaigning for their party in regions although they are off duty. And ministers will not be able to separate their personal interests from their official job."

A compromise could be made by allowing parties to recruit ministers to campaign for their party with close supervision from the Election Supervisory Committee, he said.

"Ministers found guilty of abusing their power and of using state facilities in campaigns, and the parties recruiting them, should be penalized," he said.

The Crescent Star Party (PBB) urged the election commission to either go ahead with its initial policy or make a change, but "the change it makes must be simply because the KPU wants to make a change, not because of the Supreme Court's fatwa".

"It's because the KPU is a free and independent body," PBB deputy chairman Hartono Mardjono said.

An earlier statement of the party read by the coordinator of PBB's Action Committee for Election Winning, Farid Prawiranegara, said the Supreme Court's edict has no binding power to the KPU.

Citing the law on elections, the law on the judiciary and the 1985 law on the Supreme Court, PBB said a fatwa, or edict, "is only legally binding to the presidency, either as a state's high body or as a party which calls for a fatwa.

Hartono warned that the course of elections could be disrupted "if the KPU is consistently disturbed".

Members of the National Elections Committee (PPI) should also be banned from campaigning.

Meanwhile, lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis of the Election Supervisory Committee also said the legal opinion of the Supreme Court is not binding.

"So it is up to the General Elections Commission (KPU) whether it is going to proceed or to annul its decision," Todung said. (aan/byg/rms)