Voters to decide nation's future
JAKARTA (JP): A perhaps long and twisting pursuit for a democratic society will commence when some 112 million people across the country go to the polls on Monday.
On the eve of the historic elections, the eighth in Indonesia's 54 year-old history and the first since the downfall of long-time ruler Soeharto, President Habibie capped popular calls on the nation to exercise its right to vote in order to free itself from conflicts and authoritarianism.
"We all hope for a global community which will make the Indonesian nation a model of how a big nation could free itself from conflicts and the trap of authoritarianism," Habibie said in a speech televised nationwide.
Habibie, who will assure himself of a full five-year term and a breakaway from mentor Soeharto's shadow if ruling party Golkar stretches its three-decade grip, said the polls would serve as a test whether Indonesia was fully ready for the true democracy.
He stressed that democracy meant people's maturity to accept whatever results of the polls.
"A win or a defeat is a normal and inseparable part of elections," Habibie said.
"Democracy and the culture of democracy can only be built by a nation that is capable of restraint. Accept victory without harassing those defeated, and accept defeat without turning the winner into an enemy."
Golkar, touted to enjoy the lion's share of the vote despite its waning popularity and nationwide anger against it, announced on Sunday it was prepared to accept an unprecedented defeat provided that the polls run in a fair and free manner.
"We will accept the outcome of the polls...and recognize the winning party. But we demand the same treatment if Golkar proves itself it still wins the trust of majority of Indonesian people," Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung said before a mass prayer at the party's headquarters here.
Monday's elections are mandated by the People's Consultative Assembly in a special session last November, which followed Soeharto's resignation in May last year.
An exactly 426 of 500 House of Representatives seats will up for grabs. The remaining 38 seats have been reserved for military and police, a drop from 75 in the last elections held under the discredited New Order in 1997.
But controversy marred last minute preparations on Sunday, with Golkar's biggest contenders National Mandate Party (PAN) and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) filing protests.
Following up reports of PAN's East Java provincial chapter, chairman Amien Rais lodged complaint to General Elections Commission chairman Rudini about thousands of ballot papers which were found with another party logo looking just like PAN's.
PAN suspects the mistake of having the base color of the Indonesian Muslim Awakening Party (Kami) blue or purple on the papers, making it similar to PAN instead of its original black is intentional, aimed to confuse potential PAN voters.
After the meeting it was agreed that the ballot papers would not be replaced, an action which would delay the election.
"Amien could actually demand that the election be delayed," an observer said, but Amien said for the "national interest" PAN would not take the risk of having millions of ballot papers across the country reprinted again, thus delaying the poll.
Amien added he was not entirely satisfied with the commission's ruling, but it was more important that Rudini agreed to immediately make clarifications through the media on the issue, he said.
Separately, PDI Perjuangan's team of lawyers went to the National Police following the circulation of leaflets persuading people not to vote for the party for naming non-Muslim legislative candidates.
The leaflets, apparently circulated in support of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas' message, were also seen in East Java capital of Surabaya.
Last minute preparations for the polls featured enthusiastic cooperation among residents who pitched in to cover lack of costs, some of which they suspected were corrupted. Election committees across the country are set to conduct the poll in whatever condition despite continuing reports of glitches up to Sunday.
Several local community leaders in Jakarta said that were forced to collect money from their community members and companies located nearby to meet the budget for building voting places.
Leader of neighborhood association of Kalipasir subdistrict in Central Jakarta, Rozali, said that KPU's decision to only allocate Rp 40,000 was irrational, "it is not enough even to rent a modest tent in which the cost is now about Rp 100,000".
He said that to fulfill the need of Rp 400,000 to establish four voting places he was forced to ask for donation from offices located nearby, while for the sake of economizing residences were asked to provide meals for subdistrict elections committee officials (KPPS) during the poll.
East Java capital of Surabaya woke up to rare silence on Sunday as thousands of residents left the country's second largest city for their hometowns for the polls.
People were seen setting up polling booths in their respective neighborhoods later in the day. The provincial administration has earmarked Rp 40,000 for the construction of a polling booth and Rp 20,000 to pay salary of each subdistrict polling committee chief.
The limited government fund forced subdistrict polling committees to ask financial assistance from surrounding neighborhood communities.
From Manokwari, Irian Jaya, discrepancy was found in the list of registered voters, a local election committee member, Solihin Wahid, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday. He said 92,120 voters were in the official list announced by the regency election committee, 20,043 more than total number of people who had signed up for the polls in the regency's 17 districts.
"Where did the additional voters come from?" Solihin asked.
Incongruity in the list of voters was also discovered in West Nusa Tenggara.
Meanwhile the Central Java election committee questioned the leak of funds for ballot boxes. The agency reported that the General Election Commission had allowed Rp 72,000 per box but only Rp 62,000 per box was used.