PPP leaders protest pre-election drives

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)