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)