State Policy Guidelines draft close to completion

State Policy Guidelines draft close to completion

JAKARTA (JP): The People's Consultative Assembly is on course
to complete the draft of the 1998/2003 State Policy Guidelines,
pending a compromise on political and religious matters.

Chief of the Assembly ad hoc committee deliberating the draft,
R. Hartono, said after a session yesterday that the committee
would start discussing the remaining, but demanding, issues
today.

Among the most contentious points remaining is a clause being
pushed by the two minority factions to allow political
organizations to partake in the organization of polls with the
government, and for civil servants to be allowed to vote other
than Golkar in elections.

If no agreement is reached before the Assembly's recess
between Dec. 22, 1997 and Jan. 3, 1998, the debates will be
continued in a smaller synchronizing team. The work must be
completed before Jan. 23 next year.

The committee's secretary, Rully Chairul Azwar, said it would
be difficult to agree with the United Development Party (PPP) and
the Indonesian Democratic Party's (PDI) demand that political
organizations contesting the general elections be allowed to
jointly organize the polls with the government.

"It's very difficult to grant the demand, because a poll
contestant cannot play double roles. However, we agree that in
the future we have to improve the quality of general elections,"
Rully of dominant Golkar faction said.

He said the two minority parties also urged the Assembly to
approve a clause which gives civil servants the right to vote for
a poll contestant other than Golkar.

"The monoloyalty principle must persist, because such a
freedom will hamper efforts to enhance professionalism of civil
servants and send us back to the Old Order era," Rully argued.

Civil servants, banded under the Civil Servants Corps
(Korpri), are required to support Golkar.

Faiths

The PPP faction is calling for the exclusion of
nondenominational faiths from the religious development section
in the state guidelines.

Golkar, the Armed Forces faction and regional representatives
rejected the motion.

In another session yesterday, the Assembly committee in charge
of nonstate policy guidelines remained split on PPP's draft of
democratic economy.

Golkar, the Armed Forces and regional representatives factions
rejected the draft, saying that the State Policy Guidelines
already recognized democracy in the country's economic system,
and therefore a separate Assembly decree was unnecessary.

PDI did not turn down the proposal, but suggested PPP combine
its motion with PDI's own draft of Pancasila democracy.

The debate on PPP's draft will continue tomorrow. (amd)