War drums sound as parties gear up for election

By Pandaya

JAKARTA (JP): Although formal electioneering will not be legal until a month before May 29, 1997 election day, candidates are already beating their war drums.

Leaders of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), the United Development Party (PPP) and Golkar have been busy throughout the year luring potential voters.

They disguise their motives using old, tired jargon, saying they are "meeting cadres" or going to "consolidation meetings" where they verbally jab at their rivals in an attempt to win publication of their views in the media.

The PPP and PDI attack the widespread corruption in the bureaucracy and revive debates on why the government make it obligatory for civil servants to give their political loyalty to Golkar.

As the government retains strong control of the media, the old pattern of campaigning reoccurs. Golkar boss Harmoko appears in his yellow fatigues before a huge crowd on TV in the evenings, with his supporters chanting slogans and singing songs of joy.

But PPP and PDI leaders are singing a different tune. They charge, again, that Golkar monopolizes access to TV stations, especially state-owned TVRI.

"They have stolen the start," said soft-spoken PPP chief Ismail Hasan Metareum implicitly but obviously accusing Golkar of having started campaigning.

As the usually aggressive minority PDI is crippled by internal bickering, the "informal" electioneering has been dominated by Golkar, which has strong backing from the government, the military and conglomerates. President Soeharto, who heads the powerful board of Golkar patrons, remains the political grouping's paramount leader.

As in past elections, Golkar and the Moslem-based PPP are vying for support from Moslem groups. Harmoko and Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, the President's main deputy and eldest daughter, have been seen visiting the influential ulemas who run Islamic boarding schools in Java.

President Soeharto, who, it is widely believed, will retain the presidential post in 1998, has accorded an audience to ulemas from the predominantly Moslem Java and Aceh.

Golkar has also secured the support of the Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals.

Poor showing

The three political organizations will vie for 425 seats in the 500-member House of Representatives. The remaining 75 seats will be reserved for members of the Armed Forces, who do not vote in elections.

Golkar has targeted 298 of the contested seats for next year, PPP 96 while the government-backed PDI chief Soerjadi, to observers' amusement, has openly announced his party would be happy to have the remainder.

Currently, Golkar has a commanding majority of 282 seats, the PDI 56 and the PPP 62, while the Armed Forces has 100 reserved seats.

Observers predict the PDI's showing will be poor next year because of the on-dragging internal conflict. In the 1987 election, the party under Soerjadi amazingly managed to increase its seats from 40 to 56.

The uneasy nationalist-Christian alliance, irreparably split in June when break-away leaders under Soerjadi ousted Megawati Soekarnoputri, who had been democratically elected in 1993.

Megawati, the eldest daughter of first president Sukarno, has refused to recognize the June rebel congress and claims she is still the legitimate PDI chairwoman.

Critics claim the disputed congress was engineered by the government with the intention of sabotaging the PDI's excellent chances of challenging Golkar in the 1997 election due to Megawati's enormous popularity.

The government's motive, they argue, was apparent in the way it helped Soerjadi's supporters take over the disputed PDI headquarters in a move that sparked major riots in Jakarta on July 27. Five people were killed and 23 went missing in the tragedy, according to National Commission on Human Rights reports.

Megawati's supporters have been prosecuted and jailed on charges of resisting police orders during the riots, but neither Soerjadi nor his supporters who stormed the party headquarters have been accorded the same treatment.

The new campaigning rule is likely to provoke more debate when the government bans street rallies next year. Rallies will be replaced with in-door campaigning to minimize the possibility of physical clashes.

All have accepted the ruling with reservations. PPP chief Metareum proposed that open-air campaigning should not be entirely banned because it is an effective way for political parties to communicate with their supporters.

PDI and PPP officials have warned that in-door campaigning would be effective only if all contestants were given equal access to the electronic media.

The pre-election political tension has been heightened by the formation of a controversial independent watchdog committee chaired by Goenawan Mohamad, former chief editor of the Tempo weekly shut down by the government in 1994.

Golkar rejects the committee on the grounds that Indonesia already has an official monitoring body in the National Election Institute.

But PDI officials strongly support it, arguing the body was needed to help minimize the vote rigging they say was rampant in the past. The PPP support it but doubt its findings will amount to anything because it is not recognized by the government.

The PPP, instead, are focusing on the committee's highly publicized demand for an overhaul of the election law to make it democratic. The same proposal was made by the PDI in the 1987 election but the PPP refused to openly endorse it.

Some observers doubt the PPP's proposed bill will get anywhere because legislators from Golkar and the Armed Forces have politely rejected it.