Public supports MPR meeting but ...

On Tuesday, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) convenes to forge what President B.J. Habibie calls the nation's reform agenda. A survey commissioned by The Jakarta Post and D&R newsweekly set out to pinpoint the people's real feelings about the MPR's Special Session.

JAKARTA (JP): Although many people in Indonesia support the session, most cited reasons other than the one upheld by the MPR leadership and President Habibie, according to a new survey.

Bringing former president Soeharto to account for his 32-year leadership tops the list of people's expectations of the session.

The establishment of a presidium government comes next.

The MPR leadership is convening the session primarily to move forward the general election date, originally planned for 2002, to May or June next year.

The change was forced upon the MPR after the abrupt resignation of Soeharto in May amid growing calls for reform. Habibie, the vice president who stepped into Soeharto's shoes, has since struck a deal with MPR speaker Harmoko to convene a general election and presidential election next year.

The Special Session had been expected to formalize their "reform" agenda.

However, preparing for a general election ranked seventh and last concerning expectations of the session in the minds of the 1,158 respondents in Jakarta, Yogyakarta/Surakarta, Surabaya, Denpasar and Medan.

Removing old MPR decrees ranked third, electing a president was fourth and dismantling the sociopolitical role of the Armed Forces (ABRI) fifth, according to the survey conducted by the Resource Productivity Center.

Harmoko has said the MPR meeting will endorse 11 other decrees besides setting an election date. Bringing Soeharto to account for his leadership and ending ABRI's "dual function" are pointedly not among them.

Some 43 percent of the respondents agreed with the government's position that the session was a top priority for the nation in order to push the reform agenda.

But a sizable number of them also ranked as important the election of a new president and investigations into the kidnapping of political activists by the military and the fatal shooting of students at Trisakti University in May.

Holding a general election ranked a lowly eighth, and stabilizing the economy a surprising ninth and last in the list of priorities for the national political agenda.

Despite massive media publicity, more than three-fourths of the respondents confessed ignorance about the real agenda of the Special Session; another 10 percent said they could not care less. Only 13.4 percent said they knew the precise agenda.

The respondents' high expectations of the session contrasts sharply with their low opinion of the 1,000-strong MPR, an assembly of people "elected" during the 1997 general election and hundreds of Soeharto's handpicked appointees.

Not surprisingly, a staggering 91 percent did not believe MPR members truly represented the people.

When asked what it would take for MPR members to be more representative of the people, most respondents said they should be chosen through fair and democratic elections.

More than 60 percent did not feel the current political system and its institutions, including the MPR, had lived up to the spirit of the 1945 Constitution which stipulates that sovereignty is in the hands of the people.

Many respondents -- 41 percent -- nevertheless supported the Special Session, saying that it was evidence of people's sovereignty; 35.5 percent said it would allow the government to pursue the reform agenda.

Cynicism is also prevalent, with 16.3 percent of respondents saying the session was being used by Habibie to give greater legitimacy to his government, and 15.9 percent asserting it was a waste of public money.

The tally of answers to several questions exceeded 100 percent since respondents were allowed to tick more than one answer.

Distrust at the MPR members runs deep, and many people will be closely observing how they perform in the Special Session.

More than 43 percent of the respondents said the nation should organize an even earlier general election if the MPR failed to meet the people's aspirations.

Another 35 percent said they would fight for their interests through the newly established political parties, or through non- governmental organizations and the mass media.

More than a fifth of the respondents said demonstrations should continue. (emb)