Presidential promise of fair election

SEMARANG (JP): President Soeharto has given his much-awaited guarantee to dissatisfied critics that the 1997 general election will proceed smoothly and fairly, an analyst said.

Political scientist Maschuri Maschab said that Soeharto's recent appeal to the public to entrust the task of organizing the election to official agencies served as both "a guarantee to the critical" and a warning to the election's organizers.

"The critical are those who have been dissatisfied with the way the previous general elections were held," he told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

"Through his statement, the President also warned the organizers. This group should really introspect and obey what the President has ordered," said the lecturer at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.

Another political scientist at Gadjah Mada, Rewihalo, agreed with his colleague. He said Soeharto's statement was a reminder to election organizers to take care not to do anything which might make people suspicious of their work.

In his commemoration speech for National Awakening Day last Monday, Soeharto called on the nation to strive to make the election next year better than previous polls in Indonesia.

"We want the 1997 General Election to proceed smoothly. We must all strive to make each election better than the previous ones," he said.

While acknowledging there were shortcomings in previous elections, he said they should not obscure the achievements made.

"We must not let them undermine our self-confidence in that we can organize a fair and honest election. Let's rid ourselves of any suspicion," he said.

Political observer Solly Lubis at the North Sumatra University in Medan said that people's suspicion of the government will dim if the coming general election meets a number of criteria.

"Philosophically, a good poll is one which is in accordance with the state ideology Pancasila, particularly its tenets of social justice and deliberation in order to reach consensus," Lubis said.

"The poll should also meet the stipulations outlined in the Constitution and the Broad Guidelines of State Policies," he said.

The government is under increasing pressure to ensure the 1997 poll is fair and genuine, and that cheating, which has marred past elections, is punished severely.

The United Development Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party, the two minority groups contesting the election against Golkar, have called for more guarantees of fairness from the government. (har/swe)