PPP calls for 'clean politics'

PPP calls for 'clean politics'

SURABAYA (JP): The Moslem-oriented United Development Party (PPP) pledged yesterday to conduct "clean politics" although it has become a target of intimidation.

Party chief Ismail Hasan Metareum said the PPP aims to disprove the public general perception that politics is all about dirty power games.

"We want to put the moral standard above anything else," he told the crowd of about 5,000 people celebrating the party's 23rd anniversary. "Our job is to supervise the government and ensure that laws are properly enforced."

PPP, now the second largest of Indonesia's three political organizations, is an uneasy 1973 fusion of Islamic parties. It is known as a largely conservative party.

Ismail Hasan said he suspected that the upcoming general election, scheduled for next year, will not proceed more democratically than those in the past.

He pointed out that the current electoral system does not allow the election to be conducted fairly and honestly, due largely to the intervention of the bureaucracy.

In several areas in Central Java, for example, the local regents have ordered the removal of PPP banners, displayed on the streets in celebration of the party's 23rd anniversary, he said.

These incidents took place in the regencies of Kendal, Sragen and Batang. Ismail said he believed the regents meant to disrupt PPP's preparation for the 1997 election.

"We haven't started yet, but there are obvious signs that the upcoming election is not going to be run fairly and squarely," he said.

The banners had been put up with permission from the police and military authorities, but it transpired that the regents had different ideas on this matter, he said.

Among the banners ordered removed by the Kendal regent read, "The election is not only a matter of winning or losing. It should be run in an honest and fair manner."

PPP, along with the other minority Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) has repeatedly demanded inclusion in the sponsorship of the election. As matters stand now, the sponsorship is "monopolized by the government, which supports Golkar.

Some PPP officials in the provinces have threatened to boycott the forthcoming election unless they have guarantees that the election will be conducted freely and fairly.

Ismail Hasan said the removal of the party's banners is proof that democracy in Indonesia is still in its early stages.

"The election is still a long way of, but, intimidations have already started to crop up. There is no denying that the PPP has been recognized as a national asset. In practice, however, its activities are often regarded as illegal.

"It is, therefore, only proper, if PPP posits this question: What guarantees are there that the '97 election will be an honest one ?" he asked.

Other forms of intimidation which took place in past elections, he said, were experienced by PPP representatives to the vote-counting posts, he said.

The representatives supposed to witness the ballot counting were asked to report to the police, he said. When they finally were permitted to become witnesses, they had to submit to pressure from the electoral committee members, he added.

The PPP plans to propose an amendment in the law on election. It is also drafting anti-monopoly bills, hoping that the House of Representatives will accept them.

But Golkar, which dominates the House with an 68 percent majority, has made it clear that it will shoot them down.

On Saturday, PPP leaders met with East Javan Moslem preachers, and visited the grave of Sunan Ampel, who propagated Islam in the area more than four centuries ago.

Armed Forces Commander Gen. Feisal Tanjung, who was scheduled to attend yesterday's anniversary, failed to turn up. Governor Basofi Sudirman was seen in the crowd. (15/pan)

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