Scholars warn of potential for money politics in poll

JAKARTA (JP): Participants in a conference on election monitoring urged Wednesday that no party should be allowed to abuse government facilities in campaigning and in other parts of the general elections slated for May 1999.

"Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tanjung should step down from his job," political scholar Arbi Sanit said, because of the potential abuse of power in his capacity as chairman of the ruling party Golkar.

Secretary general of the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP), Mulyana W. Kusumah told The Jakarta Post the abuse of both government facilities and positions by contesting parties was part of the wide range of money politics that election monitors should be watching out for.

"This would include (monitoring) ministers campaigning for a party," he said, given the likely possibility that ministers would use their respective office resources in campaigns.

They were responding separately to the concerns of money politics raised, among other issues, by speakers Nurcholish Madjid, also a political scholar, and lawyer T. Mulya Lubis.

Nurcholish had spoken of the "soft ethics" of Indonesians in which the boundary between "contributions and corruption are not clear."

"Money politics would be even more likely in a district system," Nurcholish said. Another political researcher earlier said that given the crisis, votes could easily be bought in exchange for basic necessities in districts where the poor were concentrated.

Mulya had questioned whether the government could act both as organizer and "fair referee" in the elections.

The government's draft on election laws states that the President is the highest authority responsible for the elections, and that a committee supervising the elections would be set up.

A political scientist in the governments seven-member team which drafted the law, Rizal Mallarangeng, had earlier written in Ummat magazine that the combination of a proportional and district system was designed to curb money politics.

He said that at least the amount of money involved could be checked at each district level to prevent the uncontrollable, allegedly large sums of money used to help Golkar win the 1997 elections.

But Arbi said the ability to control money politics "depends on the authority given to the supervising committee".

Article 16 in the draft says a supervising committee of the elections, Panwaslak, will be set up at the central, provincial and regency level. The membership will be determined by the Chief Justice for the national level, the head of the high court for the provincial level and the head of the district court for regencies.

Members do not include any party contesting the elections.

But Arbi said the supervising committee would have difficulty being effective unless it was separate from the government.

The draft has accommodated demands for public participation in an "independent institution" (Komisi Pemilihan Umum) in which members of the public will sit. It is to be set up by the President to conduct the elections. Mulyana said whether or not KIPP might be represented, it would keep on monitoring the elections.

In the government draft law, and also the proposed draft of the private National Legal Reform Consortium, which includes KIPP, bribery of voters and people recieving bribes proved to "do something" against free and fair elections, is listed as a violation which faces a three year imprisonment.

A participant from the Philippines, Chris Monsod of NAMFREL, the National Movement for Free Elections, told the forum that his country had developed a "very complex" law curbing money politics in elections. "But no one has been convicted," as the law was difficult to apply, Monsod said.

What is more practical, he said, is to ensure that the law guarantees equal broadcast time for all parties.

Last year KIPP reported, among 25 types of violations, the dominance of Golkar in media coverage. (anr)