New policy guidelines criticized

New policy guidelines criticized

JAKARTA (JP): Two political observers attributed a number of
alleged shortcomings in the newly endorsed State Policy
Guidelines to a restrictive political system and the languor of
the members of the People's Consultative Assembly.

Political scientists Mahfud M.D. and Muhammad A.S. Hikam
agreed that the guidelines did not reflect reality as they failed
to accommodate the monetary crisis and neglected political
developments.

Mahfud, who is a staff lecturer at the Yogyakarta-based
Indonesian Islamic University, conceded that one of the reasons
for the "shortcomings" was that the Golkar-sponsored document was
drafted before the onset of the economic crisis and before the
People's Consultative Assembly held its General Session.

In addition, Assembly deliberations were steered to ensure
approval for the document. Thus it was impossible for the
guidelines to include the actual economic problems, he said.

"Members of the Assembly are used to only discussing what has
been drafted and set before them," Mahfud said.

Hikam, a researcher at the National Institute of Sciences,
cited how the demands of the minority United Development Party
(PPP) and Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) factions that the
monetary crisis be addressed adequately in the document, went
unheeded.

The rejection showed the guidelines were not sensitive to the
reality of most people's lives.

"They don't directly touch on the reality," he said.

The crisis, according to Hikam, was the political aftermath of
the decline of the people's trust in the government. This means
that the government's legitimacy could also be questioned.

"But legislators do not seem to pay attention to this. So why
should we trust them?" Hikam asked.

The Assembly endorsed on Monday the 1998/2003 State Policy
Guidelines.

After initial discontent and failed efforts to make their
voices heard, the PPP and PDI eventually dropped their campaign
for changes to the document. They accepted explanations from
Golkar that the crisis involved issues which were too technical
in nature to be included in the guidelines.

Besides, Golkar argued, the monetary crisis had been
implicitly addressed in the document's section on the impacts and
challenges of global change.

Hikam, however, said that the monetary crisis was not
technical at all.

"It's ridiculous to say so. The crisis is something that
concerns the people's trust," he said.

He cited the delay in the International Monetary Fund's second
installment of US$3.0 billion out of its US$43 billion bailout
package to Indonesia.

That PPP and PDI finally surrendered to Golkar did not change
the fact that the guidelines were far from realistic, he said.

Had the two minority factions stood their ground and rejected
the document, the dominant Golkar and its allies the Armed Forces
and the regional representatives faction would still have plowed
on and endorsed it, Hikam speculated.

The situation was the reason why some critics charged that the
guidelines were endorsed only to satisfy certain parties, he
said.

Mahfud begged to differ, however. He said he could accept some
Assembly members' argument that the monetary crisis was too
technical to include in the guidelines.

He suggested that actions to follow up the crisis which was
only "implicitly" discussed in the Guidelines, could be regulated
through presidential decrees.

"But ideally, the crisis should have been a matter that was
deliberated by the people's representatives. It's indeed a pity
that it has not been," Mahfud said.

"But then this has been the nature of our People's
Consultative Assembly, so why bother?" he said.

Both Hikam and Mahfud agreed that reservations to certain
sections in the guidelines -- including those concerning the
demands for greater involvement of the contesting political
parties in the planning, organization and supervision of polling
-- were ineffective and meant nothing as the guidelines were not
actual laws. The demand was made by the PPP and PDI.

The reservations did not have any legal strength. Should they
be neglected or violated in the future, there would not be any
legal means available to charge the violators, the observers
agreed. (swa)