Political parties urged to announce candidates

Political parties urged to announce candidates

JAKARTA (JP): A political observer suggested that Indonesia's three political groupings take a brave step and announce their candidates for the 1998 presidency and vice presidency, thus ensuring a more lively general election on May 29.

Though not a done thing in Indonesian politics, announcing preferred candidates for the nation's future leadership may prove to be more beneficial for the political contestants, according to Marzuki Darusman, a former Golkar legislator.

"The move will earn the parties people's attention and even affinity," he said Saturday. Marzuki is now deputy chief of the National Commission on Human Rights. He was a legislator between 1987 and 1992, and was known for his outspokenness, a feature which reportedly was behind Golkar's decision not to place him again at the House of Representatives.

"(Announcing candidates) may boost a party's achievement in the general election," he said.

The three political contestants -- the dominant Golkar, the United Development Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party -- will vie for 425 seats of the 500-seat House of Representatives. The remaining 75 seats are allocated to the Armed Forces, whose members do not vote.

The election campaigning is slated for April 27 to May 23. There will be a cooling-off period of five days before the elections.

The contestants are usually told to attract votes only by speaking about their respective programs and plans, rather than about any other issues that might interest the public. Marzuki, however, believed that revealing programs may not be an adequate vote-getter move.

He pointed out how the current political tradition curtailed people's opportunity to speak out and name their presidential and vice presidential candidates.

"People should be free to make their own choices and give suggestions to the People's Consultative Assembly," he said. "Naming candidates shouldn't be the monopoly of legislative members."

The new lineup of the 1,000-strong Assembly will be sworn in October. Its members will meet in March next year to elect the president and vice president and establish the five-yearly state guidelines.

Some groups in society have recently ventured naming figures said to have the potential to be vice president for the 1998/2003 period. The names include State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie, incumbent Try Sutrisno, and State Minister of National Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita.

But some people have objected to the practice and called it unethical.

Marzuki, however, said the new trend should be supported and developed so that it becomes common for people to name candidates.

"It's a positive development in the public's political education," he said. "It shouldn't be hampered because it's something that happens naturally from the people."

Marzuki believed Soeharto would be reelected, but said that it should come about in the natural process of the election.

"(Soeharto's reelection), however, should not come about just because many people make assumptions," he said.

As for Try's reelection, Marzuki said much depended on his "acceptability" and on the existing "political requirement" in society -- namely, whether Try will be suitable for the ongoing political phenomenon. (imn)