New House members to be inducted in early October

New House members to be inducted in early October

JAKARTA (JP): National Elections Committee chairman Jacob
Tobing said on Thursday new members of the House of
Representatives (DPR) and the People's Consultative Assembly
(MPR) would be inducted into office in early October.

He was responding to calls to move forward the schedule for
swearing in new legislators and holding the General Session of
the MPR following the ruling Golkar Party's expected defeat in
the general election.

"So far the General Elections Commission (KPU) has no plan to
change the timetable for swearing in the legislators because
everything is proceeding smoothly according to the established
schedule," Jakob said at the Joint Operations Media Center (JOMC)
at Hotel Aryaduta Jakarta.

He said new DPR and MPR members were slated to be installed
between Oct. 1 and Oct. 3.

He said that according to the existing schedule, the
composition of the regency legislatures would be set on July 12,
the provincial legislatures on July 15, the House on July 19 and
the Assembly's composition would be fixed between July 26 and
July 29.

The KPU has been charged with establishing the composition of
interest groups in the Assembly for the 1999 to 2004 period.

Separately, National Elections Committee deputy chairman
Hasbalah M. Saad said interest groups whose aspirations were not
represented by existing political parties should begin to
consider possible representatives for the Assembly.

They should prepare a list of possible representatives and
send the names to the KPU, he said. The KPU has not announced a
limit on the number of representatives from each interest group,
but a total of 65 seats in the MPR has been allocated for
interest groups.

The KPU will approve the lists of potential candidates before
passing them on to the government for final approval.

The representatives from the interest groups, who will help
select the next president, will be selected differently this year
than in past election years.

In the past, interest group representatives and regional
representatives were appointed by the government. Several members
of the military were usually included among the interest group
and regional representatives in their capacity as military
commanders and governors.

An executive with the National Mandate Party (PAN), Hasbalah,
said the KPU had decided the 65 interest group representatives in
the Assembly would be selected from religious communities,
intellectuals, small-scale business owners, journalists, the
handicapped, women and indigenous peoples.

According to the elections law, the 135 regional
representatives will be chosen by provincial legislative
councils.

Hasbalah said that besides the military's 38 representatives
in the Assembly, military members could also be named regional
representatives if they were selected by provincial
legislatures.

In a discussion on Thursday on the military in Jakarta,
participants objected to the possibility of additional military
representatives in the MPR.

The Institute for Policy and Community Development Studies
(IPCOS), which has organized public information campaigns on the
elections, said the selection of interest group representatives
and regional representatives should be democratic to avoid
friction among various groups.

"Different labor groups, for instance, could object if they
felt they were not represented in the Assembly," IPCOS researcher
Joe Fernandez said.

Also on Wednesday, Antara reported from Surabaya, East Java,
that the provincial administration was considering giving
compensation of between Rp 30 million and Rp 50 million to each
provincial legislative council member who had served on the
council during for the past two years.

The secretary to the provincial administration, Soenarjo, said
the payment would be given as compensation for council members'
service over the past two years.

The "severance payment" has been approved by the Ministry of
Home Affairs, he said.

He denied the payment was related to reports of the
legislators' debt to the East Java Development Bank.

Bank president Syamsul Ariefin said he believed the outgoing
legislators, who each owed between Rp 25 million and Rp 30
million to the bank, would repay their debt.(rms/anr)