PAN urges quick creation of new election policies

JAKARTA (JP): The National Mandate Party (PAN) demanded on Sunday that President B.J. Habibie's administration and the House of Representatives complete the country's new election rules as soon as possible.

Any delay in producing the election's game rules, according to party chairman Amien Rais, would only cause further political uncertainty and destructive protests, and indicate that Habibie was "buying time" to consolidate power.

"It must be done quickly. There mustn't be any delay," he said in a media briefing following the party's first executive meeting. He vowed to join forces with leaders of other existing political parties and social groups to press the government and legislature "again, again and again" to come up with good political laws.

"We'll keep pushing and set an immediate deadline if necessary," said Amien, the former chairman of the influential 28-million-strong Muhammadiyah modernist Moslem organization.

The government has drafted new laws on elections, on political parties, and on the structure and powers of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and provincial legislatures.

The country's politics is currently governed by a controversial set of five political laws used effectively by former president Soeharto's regime to remain in power for 32 years.

Habibie's administration appointed a seven-member team of experts to draw up the new laws. The documents were supposed to have been submitted to the House for deliberation last month, but are in fact still with the State Secretariat. There has been no official word explaining the delay.

Habibie announced soon after his rise to the presidency that a general election would be held in May 1999.

Asked if he would boycott the elections should the upcoming laws turn out to be "undemocratic", Amien said: "It's still too early to say."

Amien also spoke of the party's agenda for reform. In politics, for instance, he called for the Armed Forces (ABRI) to be "proportionally" represented only in the MPR instead of also in the House as is the case now.

The draft for the new law reportedly reduces ABRI's House representation from 75 seats to 55 seats.

"On ABRI's dual function (that justifies the military's active role in politics), we want ABRI to really go for true internal reform... that its functions are restricted to only being the state's security force, especially against external threats," he said.

Active military officials must not occupy executive or bureaucratic posts, Amien added.

However, as citizens, ABRI members "may vote" in the elections. Retired ABRI members should be treated as regular citizens, he said.

The party also said it would push for a separation of the national police force from the Armed Forces. "The police should be enforcers of social order, independent from ABRI intervention," Amien said. (aan)