Officials support Soeharto's call for indoor campaigns
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)