Ministers should deal with crisis

Ministers should deal with crisis

From Media Indonesia

Political-party figures are divided in their view whether ministers should be allowed to campaign. I think ministers should be prohibited from campaigning on the basis of the following considerations.

1. If the ministers campaign, they are compelled to take leave. Our country is in a crisis and there is very much work to be accomplished by the ministers in a short time.

I cannot imagine the situation between May 18 and June 6, when a number of ministers leave their posts only because of party interest. It is not easy to delegate the task of the ministers to other ministers or to their staff. The main thing is that general interests must prevail over party or personal interests.

2. The general election should be honest and fair. If ministers are allowed to campaign, it is feared this will eliminate fairness because the ministers belong to three political parties, while the other 45 never participated in the previous elections and are, thus, not represented in the Cabinet. Let us all become new players and start from the beginning together.

3. The general election committee (KPU) has to finish a lot of work before the election campaigns in less than two months. The ministers should not campaign, so the KPU is not additionally burdened to make regulations for campaigning ministers.

It is true that the KPU cannot prohibit ministers from campaigning, but the KPU is in a position to compel political parties that they prohibit their cadres who are ministers from campaigning.

However, I agree if ministers campaign after the 1999 general election because:

1. It is fitting that the ministers go on leave after years of service.

2. A sense of fairness will have been obtained because the ministers will be the product of the general election with 48 political parties participating.

3. The KPU will have sufficient time to set the limits for ministers campaigning.

M. GANDHI

Tangerang, West Java