Servicemen 'must resign' to contest DPD seats
Muhammad Nafik and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Analysts welcomed on Monday moves to allow military and police personnel the right to contest elections, but insisted that they resign from the services completely before registering their candidacy as members of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD).
"They should resign from the military and police services completely if they want to contest seats in DPD in general elections," said Ramlan Surbakti, a constitutional law expert from Surabaya's Airlangga University.
People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) members endorsed last year the third phase of constitutional amendments, which stipulate that, among other things, the MPR comprises House of Representatives and DPD members only, all of whom are elected.
Currently MPR members consist of House members, regional representatives and interests groups.
Under the amended Constitution, there will be only 120 DPD members in the legislature representing 30 provinces, or four from each province.
The home ministry submitted to the House last week the revised electoral bill which, if endorsed, allows military and police members to contest seats in the DPD in the 2004 elections.
Analysts have hailed the bill, saying that allowing military and police personnel to run in general elections would strip the two institutions of any political roles.
They also called for the immediate revocation of Decree No. 7/2000 of the MPR guaranteeing a military and police presence in the House until 2004, and in the MPR until 2009.
The TNI and the police have 38 seats in both the House and the Assembly.
The bill, however, suggests that civil servants, military and police personnel contesting general elections be suspended from their positions, and later be reinstated if they are not elected or no longer serve as DPD members.
According to Ramlan, if civil servants, military and police personnel only temporarily resign to contest elections, their loyalty to their constituents would be questionable when serving as legislators.
"They would remain loyal to the government or corps rather than to their constituents," insisted Ramlan, who is also a member of the General Elections Commission (KPU).
Satya Arinanto, a constitutional law expert from the University of Indonesia, concurred with Ramlan, saying that allowing civil servants, military and police officers to take leave only to contest an election was totally unacceptable in any democratic country.
J. Kristiadi, a military analyst from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said it was "abnormal" to allow active civil servants, military and police officers to vie for legislative seats.
"If so, they will continue to be loyal to their superiors and corps even if they are serving as legislators because their careers will rely on them," he said.
Kristiadi said that it would be a consequence that military and police officers would have to accept if they failed to win seats in the DPD but had already resigned from the services.
Bambang Widjojanto, a senior activist from the Coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations for the Change of Political Laws, said that it was very likely that civil servants would misuse state facilities if they did not quit to register as electoral candidates.
"The misuse of state facilities would be unavoidable if civil servants contesting general elections are still tied to their positions," he said.
Also rejecting the idea was prominent legal expert Todung Mulya Lubis, who said the move to give the TNI and police the right to be elected would provide them with the "leeway" to be involved in practical politics.
Responding to the criticism, Minister of Defense Matori Abdul Djalil simply urged the House to accommodate the public's aspirations before endorsing the bill.