PBB calls for united Islamic political parties

JAKARTA (JP): The Crescent Star Party (PBB) has called on other Islamic political parties to band together, hold a joint election campaign and form a united faction in the legislature after the June 7 elections.

Party chairman Yusril Ihza Mahendra voiced the appeal in a media conference here on Wednesday, pointing at the immense potential that would be pooled if the dozens of Islamic parties united.

Parties based on Islamic principles include the Justice Party (PK), the United Development Party (PPP), the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Syarikat Islam Party, the Muslim Community Awakening Party, the Muslim Community Party, and the parties associated to Nahdlatul Ulama.

He conceded there were differences but cited the similarity in the parties' philosophies. "This suggestion for union is made so Islamic political forces can advance together," he said as quoted by Antara.

Yusril insisted he did not seek a fusion of the Islamic political parties such as in 1973 when the government forcibly merged four Islamic parties into the United Development Party (PPP).

Yusril, a constitutional law expert, said he was resigning from his position as assistant to the minister/state secretary and his teaching post as a professor of law at the University of Indonesia.

A newly issued government regulation stipulates that civil servants wishing to join political parties must resign from the bureaucracy.

The call for Islamic parties to band together was only one of the latest developments in the run-up to the June 7 general election. At the National Elections Institute, a delegation of foreign poll watchdogs has offered technical assistance to the Team of Eleven responsible for organizing the preliminary stages of the elections.

The team's deputy chairman, Adi Andojo, received the representatives of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the Asia Foundation.

Adi said the foreign poll watchdogs would only recommend actions to be taken by the team in, among other things, selecting political parties eligible to contest the poll.

"We will determine whether to accept their recommendations," Adi said, accompanied by other team members, including political scholar Miriam Budiardjo, and youth activists Rama Pratama and Anas Urbaningrum.

"They have expertise in monitoring and preparing the polls in some countries like Cambodia," Adi said, adding that the area where the team needed the most help was on the drafting of directives for the new political laws.

Team member Andi A. Mallarangeng said the foreign assistance would help Indonesia convince the world that its elections met international standards.

Meanwhile, politician Sarwono Kusumaatmadja on Wednesday voiced suspicions that a political group was seeking to abort the general election.

"This group tries to accomplish its aims by exploiting public distrust toward the implementation of the reform agenda," said Sarwono, leader of the Movement for Justice and National Unity.

However, Sarwono, who is also a former cabinet minister, did not name the group he was referring to. He said it was his belief that the failure of the general elections would result in chaos and social revolution, which would enable the group to assume power.

"This group believes in violence and money politics," the former secretary general of the ruling Golkar said in a discussion on preventing social revolution.

Sharing Sarwono's view, the governor of the National Defense Institute (Lemhanas), Lt. Gen. Agum Gumelar, said there was an "extremist" force that aimed to derail the development and reform agenda.

"They seek to disrupt (the elections) by exploiting present conditions," Agum said without identifying the force. (01/edt/swe)