Scholars criticize new election speech guidelines

Scholars criticize new election speech guidelines

JAKARTA (JP): The government's new guidelines on election
campaign speeches were criticized yesterday by scholars who
agreed that the need to maintain political stability prompted the
controversial rules.

Riswandha Imawan of the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada
University's School of Social and Political Sciences said the
decrees were part of the government's efforts to weaken political
organizations, particularly Golkar's opponents.

A senior researcher from the National Institute of Science,
Indria Samego, was less critical. He speculated that the
government had merely lacked sufficient time to heed public
expectations following a series of riots before the May 29
election.

The two political scientists were commenting on decrees
announced by the home affairs and information ministers Tuesday
which detailed the operational rules of the electoral regulations
issued last November.

Criticism focused on clauses allowing the government to
intervene in contestants' campaigns, which many believe is a
thinly veiled form of censorship.

The rules say that all texts of campaign speeches will be
vetted by a government-sanctioned screening team before they are
made public during the April 27 to May 23 campaign period.

Riswandha said that by issuing the latest two electoral
regulations, the government had acted unnecessarily and might
jeopardize a successful election.

He said that in the wake of human rights criticism such
restrictive electoral rules would raise eyebrows about
Indonesia's political stability.

"The international community may reach the conclusion that
Indonesia is unable to cope with a crisis after decades of
efforts to maintain order. This contradicts government officials'
repeated statements that the country is safe and under control,"
Riswandha said.

He added that the government should not have preserved its
long-standing suspicions of certain political groupings because
they all recognize the state ideology Pancasila.

"They (political organizations) will undoubtedly only raise
issues which are in line with Pancasila," Riswandha said.

The screening job will also give the election committee a
headache, because it will have to examine more than 900 texts
from the three election contestants, according to Riswandha.

Understandable

Indria said that the government's restrictive electoral rules
are understandable in anticipation of a reoccurrence of the
violence which rocked the country recently.

"The government doesn't risk allowing legislative candidates
to incite a mass mobilization while delivering their speeches,"
he said.

Ethnic and sectarian riots have shaken the archipelago
sporadically since October, killing 14 people. The latest
outbreak in West Kalimantan prompted the Malaysian government to
close a number of crossing points along the Sarawak-Kalimantan
border.

Indria labeled the government's right to screen the speeches a
setback. "The government should not worry about campaign speakers
as they will find it hard to persuade the public to do what they
ask because people have grown smarter," Indria said.

He called on the government to apply the rules without
exception to all three political groupings contesting the
election. Golkar, the United Development Party and the Indonesian
Democratic Party are the only organizations that qualify for the
election.

"As long as the rules work and the government plays its
refereeing role consistently, I believe each political grouping
should manage to make use of the campaign period effectively
despite the restrictions," he said.

Indria suggested that changes toward a more democratic
election would take a long time to implement. (amd)