PPP and PDI urge capital to be model city in election

PPP and PDI urge capital to be model city in election

JAKARTA (JP): The chairmen of the city chapters of the United
Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI)
said Jakarta should set a good example in this year's election.

Rusdi Hamka of PPP, and Lukman Mokoginta of PDI, yesterday
questioned the way Golkar used city programs to get votes.

Rusdi said the dominant Golkar group was being "excessive" in
its attempt to win votes.

Lukman said the Jakarta administration (ruled by Golkar)
should be fair in the run-up to the election and not "hurt the
feelings" of the other parties. The capital should set a good
example for towns across the country.

Lukman and Rusdi were commenting separately on the
distribution of 25,000 free identity cards to the poor by the
West Jakarta mayoralty earlier this month, and Thursday's
ceremony in which Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman
Djojonegoro launched flood control and school renovation
projects.

Sources said Wardiman was acting in his capacity as Golkar's
patron for Jakarta. The ceremony site in Rawabadak, North
Jakarta, was decked out in yellow but there was no direct mention
of Golkar.

Rusdi said this kind of action could not be hidden from the
foreign observers who would be allowed here during the election.

"Such things should not happen in the city," Rusdi said.

He said the PPP was "helpless" because Golkar was making the
most of every possible opportunity like the North Jakarta
ceremony.

The projects launched in North Jakarta, worth around Rp 44
billion (US$18.1 million), were three flood control projects for
North Jakarta and seven senior and junior high school
renovations.

Also present were Governor Surjadi, North Jakarta mayor
Suprawito and officials.

Rusdi said he would question these actions this week at the
next meeting of the city's election committee. Party chairmen are
members of the committee.

But he said he felt it was "useless" to file a protest with
the election committee.

"If we question these actions there is always an excuse such
as Golkar was just meeting its cadres," Rusdi said. Party
officials of PDI and PPP have frequently charged Golkar with
jumping the campaign start, which officially begins on April 27.
It ends on May 23.

Linking city programs to Golkar was not necessary because
"Golkar will be made to win anyway," Rusdi said.

Governor Surjadi Soedirdja, as chairman of the city's election
committee, has repeatedly told city committee members to remember
that Jakarta, as the country's capital, will be in the spotlight
in the May election.

At the opening of West Jakarta's new mayoralty office last
week, mayor Sutardjijanto denied the free identity cards had
anything to do with the election. He said they were "assistance
from the strong to the weak".

Lukman said if the municipality claimed that doing favors had
nothing to do with Golkar's effort to win votes, it should prove
that these favors are not only done close to elections.

Lukman also said he was not sure who Wardiman was representing
at the North Jakarta ceremony. "Maybe the President, but we will
find out," he said.

Also yesterday Golkar city chairman Tadjus Sobirin quoted
Surjadi as saying that the political groups should participate in
the election in line with state ideology Pancasila and the 1945
Constitution. (anr/11)