PPP leaders protest pre-election drives
JAKARTA (JP): Executives from the Moslem-based United Development Party (PPP) ended their two-day leadership meeting yesterday with a strong statement protesting Golkar's pre- election activities.
The party leaders did not name the Golkar group, but they identified, in a written statement, a number of tactics being employed by the ruling political group.
The PPP criticized the numerous government officials that have launched "yellownization" drives, whereby Golkar's color yellow dominates public places in terms of paint, banners and clothing. The drive is widely regarded as a Golkar campaign tactic.
The party leaders also criticized a "certain political contestant" for door-to-door campaigning, "training" people how to vote, and giving undue media attention to the cases of former PPP supporters who switch to the Golkar group.
The PPP called on the other parties to "return to the spirit of the 1993 Broad Guidelines of State Policies" which call for a moral and ethical political culture.
"We'll deliver this statement to Minister of Home Affairs (Moch. Yogie S.M.) soon," chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum told journalists yesterday.
Ismail also said that his party has evidence of the campaign maneuvers, which the party says are "against political morals and ethics".
In the Belo district of West Nusa Tenggara and in several Central Javanese cities, village chiefs gave residents forms on which they were asked to write down their personal data, job information, address and which political organization they would vote for next year.
Ismail cited more violations at high schools in the provinces of South Sumatra and Jambi, where teachers asked students about who they would vote for.
Under electoral rules, a person's vote is confidential. The election campaigning period is determined by the General Election Institute, but usually occurs the month before election day.
"We call on all Indonesian citizens to exercise their rights to help supervise the stages of the 1997 general election," which begins on May 1st with the registration of voters, the statement said.
Golkar, the PPP and the nationalist-Christian alliance Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) will run in next year's election for the 425 seats in the House of Representatives. Golkar, which currently has 282 seats in the House, intends to recoup the 17 seats it lost to PDI and PPP in the 1992 election to augment its majority.
The PPP's deputy secretary-general, Muhsin Bafadal, told The Jakarta Post that he has filed complaints about the violations with the regent of Bima and other home ministry officials.
For the time being, "I have ordered PPP supporters there not to fill in any forms until the registration period officially begins," Bafadal said.
Antara reported on Wednesday that PPP executives in Indonesia's 27 provinces have taken measures to help prevent violations in the general election. In South Sumatra, for instance, the party has set up a team to monitor the voter registration process.
Jakarta chapter chairman Rusjdi Hamka said that 15,000 PPP supporters will be deployed to help monitor all stages of the general election. (01/swe)