Scholars attack government for favoring ruling Golkar

JAKARTA (JP): Two intellectuals slammed the government yesterday for favoring Golkar and "marginalizing" the other two political parties, despite legal guarantees for equal treatment of the three organizations.

Djohar Noor and Riswandha Imawan said that Golkar, the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) should receive equal treatment because they share the same, sole principle: the state ideology Pancasila.

Djohar, a lecturer at Semarang's Diponegoro University, told The Jakarta Post that the government required all political organizations to adopt Pancasila as their common principle.

"It would be good if the government had some PPP and PDI figures in the bureaucracy," he said. "Who knows, they could contribute to solving acute problems such as corruption, collusion and foreign debt."

Riswanda, a political scholar from Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, said it was good that, finally, the long-standing marginalization of political parties has been brought out into the open.

"The process has been going on for many years and it's fortunate that people now openly discuss it," he said.

The polemic on the marginalization of PPP and PDI was started by PPP chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum last week. He said the two parties have been sidelined in the face of a political system dominated by Golkar.

Djohar pointed out that in an obvious sign of its favoritism of Golkar, the government has provided Golkar with enormous communication access.

He did not elaborate but it is common knowledge that in the evenings, the news broadcasted by the state-owned television station, TVRI, which is relayed by private stations, shows Golkar chairman Harmoko in his yellow fatigues meeting with activists in the provinces.

In a related development, Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. urged the media to stop harping on his recent statement in which he called Ismail Hasan "sick" for alleging that the bureaucracy sidelines the PPP (and PDI).

"No, no. Stop asking me questions," an irritated Yogie said as he briskly got into his waiting car, when journalists chased him for comments on a demand by PPP officials for his apology regarding his remark.

Yogie looked up from the back seat of his Volvo and murmured, "You said it," when a reporter shouted, "As the patron of domestic political development, are you sick, too?"

On a separate occasion, Ismail Hasan said that Yogie should have used "other words, which are not "offensive." (pan)