War drums sound as parties gear up for election

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.