PBB calls for united Islamic political parties

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)