PPP doubts fair election next month

JAKARTA (JP): The United Development Party (PPP) is unsure if the government will keep its promise to act as an impartial "referee" in next month's election, its top official said yesterday.

PPP secretary-general Tosari Widjaya said in an interview with The Jakarta Post that there was no indication that this year's election would be better than the last in 1992.

Tosari said the various government regulations derived from the much criticized 1985 election law, "fail to accommodate people's political aspirations".

Tosari said the party has called for the amendment of the law since early 1996, but efforts have not been successful and they are still struggling to survive with the existing rules.

"We have been consolidating since 1995 to strengthen our organization and leadership at all levels," Tosari said.

The Moslem-based PPP will contest for 425 seats in the House of Representatives against the dominant Golkar and the minority Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).

The three sanctioned parties are scheduled to start campaigning Sunday.

Under Indonesian law, the general election is organized by the government, which backs Golkar.

Tosari said the government has been unsympathetic to the PPP from the early stages of the election.

He said the party had cried foul last year when local authorities in Java denied some Islamic boarding school students the right to register in the upcoming election.

"They did it because they knew we had been successful in winning the teachers' sympathy," Tosari said. He said students in Magelang, Central Java had been told to return to their hometown in Sumatra to register for the election.

"It was a blatant violation of the law... Every Indonesian citizen 17 years-old and above is eligible to vote," he said.

Tosari said the government has meddled in the party's internal affairs by electing chairmen of the PPP's branches in several regencies nationwide.

"The case in Bojonegoro in East Java for instance is a case in point in which the regent insisted on recognizing a PPP branch chairman who had been dismissed by the party," he said.

"Isn't it strictly internal party affairs?" he asked.

Tosari listed other government policies that, according to him, were "made to strain" other political parties other than the dominant Golkar. He said one example was the military's screening of the party's legislative candidates.

"Does it make any sense to you that a Kyai (religious teacher) who has been a member of the local legislative council for a great many years failed the screening?" he asked.

The screening aims to ensure that no legislative candidates from any group has a past link with the banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), which was blamed for the 1965 coup attempt.

Tosari said local government officials had meddled in the listing of PPP legislative candidates.

He added that many regencies have different policies on how the electioneering should be implemented.

The government allows the replacement of campaigners if they are unable to turn up for some reason, but the policy does not apply in the regencies.

According to the rule, a campaigner could be replaced provided that the party inform the local authorities.

"However, things are not that easy in the regencies. They have their own interpretation of the rule. For example, a regency requires notification of three days ahead of schedule and others could be six days," he said.

Tosari also criticized a decree issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs which requires regents to determine a place to hold campaigns for the three political groups.

"Finding a place to stage one's campaign should be decided by the party itself, why all the regulation?" he asked. "If they won't let us campaign just say so, and we won't have to fuss anymore."

Tosari said the government has one month to prove to the world that it can organize a quality general election by remaining neutral in election activities and assuring people have the freedom to vote. (aan)