Officials support Soeharto's call for indoor campaigns

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto's call for reform of the rules on election campaigns received support from senior government and military figures yesterday.

The support came from Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman and Armed Forces Chief of Socio-political Affairs Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid.

"We all want next year's general election to take place without disturbances. We don't want violations to mar it," Soesilo told reporters after briefing government public relations officers at the Wisata International Hotel.

Soeharto has called for new regulations on election campaigning to prevent any repetitions of the chaos and violence of past elections and suggested that campaigns should no longer be turned into shows of force by the political organizations contesting the elections.

He asked the National Council for Defense and Security to draw up new regulations for the 1997 general election. The council, comprising retired military officers, advises the President on state matters.

The Indonesian Institute of Sciences has announced that it will conduct strategic social, political and cultural studies on the political campaigns during next year's general election.

The institute's chairman Soefjan Tsauri said that the study would be used by the government and the National Council for Defense and Security to design policies on the organization of general elections.

Calls to regulate election campaigns, however, were first voiced by the ruling political organization Golkar at its leadership meeting in October last year. Golkar officials have suggested that outdoor rallies be banned and replaced by indoor meetings, including televised discussions among the candidates running for the House of Representatives.

Chairman of the United Development Party Ismail Hasan Metareum has expressed his objection to the so-called "dialog campaigning" saying that street rallies are an acceptable part of an election.

Soesilo said that he was certain next year's election will proceed smoothly as long as all contestants stick to the rules of the game.

"Obstacles will only pop up if the new central board of the Indonesian Democratic Party fails to consolidate its leadership," he said.

When asked about threats from some groups in society to boycott the election, Soesilo said that it was the political parties' task to attract people to vote for them.

Separately, Syarwan said he supports the idea of indoor campaigns.

"Indoor campaigning is the best campaign system as people can intensively participate in the dialog," Syarwan told reporters.

He said that the indoor campaign system is expected to reduce the possibility of chaos and violence.

"Experience has shown that street rallies are often marred by physical clashes among parties' supporters," he said.

Meanwhile, Armed Forces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung told the gathering of public relations officers that the Indonesian press should put the interests of the nation above anything else. (imn)