PPP focuses on better bureaucracy

PPP focuses on better bureaucracy

JAKARTA (JP): The bureaucracy was mocked as a broker of paid
services yesterday by the United Development Party's (PPP)
chairman, Ismail Hasan Metareum.

"The bureaucracy has become a service bureau," he said, citing
an Indonesian phrase for middlemen who are paid to provide
services such as organizing passports and identity cards.

"The bureaucracy no longer functions as the public's servant.
Instead, it acts as if it is the people's master, causing them
problems every day," Ismail was quoted by Antara as telling
10,000 people at a PPP rally in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.

He said the bureaucracy had to improve if the country's
social, political, cultural and economic spheres were to change.

PPP deputy chairman Hamzah Haz launched another scathing
attack on the government in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi. He said
the bureaucracy was more concerned with money than its duty to
serve the public.

He said many poor people suffered because of bureaucrats.
"This country is not a kingdom, right?" he told about 40,000
supporters.

Ismail said local people had yet to benefit from the
development programs they had helped fund.

He promised his party would help eliminate poverty by drafting
a bill to force conglomerates to pay 10 percent of net profits to
help small business grow.

PPP deputy chairman Zein Badjeber spoke of similar issues in
the party's televised discussion yesterday. He said legislation
was needed to bridge the gap between big and small businesses.

Back in Tamangapa, Ujungpandang, PPP supporters colored
Hamzah's rally with shouts of "Long live Mega-bintang".

Hamzah said the government had banned the Mega-bintang banners
because it was "scared the PPP would grow bigger".

"The banner ban has no legal basis," he said, to the cheers of
thousands of green-clad supporters. Some wore T-shirts which
said, "Anticorruption Mega-bintang."

Hamzah said the time had come for people to speak up, fight
intimidation and express their political choice. He said people
had become more "politically literate" than ever.

In Jayapura, Irian Jaya, local campaigner Nurhayati Payapo
denied accusations that the PPP only represented Moslems and that
it sought to create an Islamic state.

He told a crowd Sunday in the Cendrawasih University soccer
field that the PPP adhered to the Pancasila as the nation's sole
ideology. (30/37/aan/swe)