---------------------------------------------------------- Visit Indonesia Daily News Online HomePage: http://www.indo-news.com/ Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- The Indonesian Observers, 5th August 1999 Are Indonesians really ready to accept democracy? By Bambang Nurbianto JAKARTA - The Indonesian people have proven that they are ready for a democratic system by casting their votes in the June 7 polls without any significant violence, as predicted by local and foreign analysts. Nearly 90% of Indonesians who have the right to vote took part in the general election contesting 48 political parties. The people have decided their choices for members of the House of Representatives (DPR), but many members of the Indonesian political elite who were not entrusted by the people could not accept it, and delayed the enactment of the general election results. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) leads the general election securing 33.76%, followed by the ruling Golkar 22.46%, the National Awakening Party (PKB) 12.62%, the United Development Party (PPP) 10.72%. The rest votes shared by other smaller parties. These politicians must be ashamed that they could not finish the job entrusted by the people, causing President B.J. Habibie to take over their job by declaring the tabulation of the general election to be legitimate. The General Election Commission (KPU), whose members consist of representatives from the 48 political parties and the government, is not able to enact the election results. The politicians whose parties won no parliamentary seats tried to use the commission for their own interests. "The fact that the small parties rejected signing the general election result, means that we should realize that our politicians can still learn much about democracy, particularly how to accept defeat in a political competition," said A.S Hikam of the University of Indonesia. In its plenary session on July 26, only 17 KPU members from political parties signed the tabulation of the general election results; 27 refused to sign and two others abstained, However, based on the votes they collected at the general election, the parties which did not sign the general election results only collected about 7% of the total votes. This means that parties entrusted by 93% of the voters have agreed with the election results. Enactment of the election result by KPU is not a must. When the commission handed over its work to the president, the president does actually have the right to declare the validity of the general election result. President Habibie, however, has his own reasons to give an opportunity to KPU members to take parts in the decision making process. Maybe the president still hopes that all parties are happy because he realized that his position was not strong enough to hold a confrontation with the politicians. In addition, based on the election law, KPU still have a role in the political process after the general election, including the formation of the House of Representatives (DPR), The Provincial House of Representatives (DPRD I), and the District House of Representatives (DPRD II). However, when KPU failed to make the decision on Tuesday, the president realized he could not wait any longer because, based on the schedule, on August 5, there must be certainty about members of the DPR, the DPRD I, and the DPRD II. What is behind the delay? Violations held by several political parties during the general election is one of the reasons why KPU failed to enact the election results. Because of those violations, a group of small parties said that the KPU enactment on the election result should be only temporary. KPU will make not make a permanent enactment until all violations such as money politics, campaign violation, and intimidation, mostly carried out by the big parties, are investigated thoroughly. Parties should also be ready to withdraw its DPR members if they won the seats unfairly. Jocob Tobing, a KPU member from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) rejected the word temporary to describe the KPU decision because it will have wide political consequences. "If our decision is temporary, then the DPR, DPRD I, DPRD II, as well as MPR must be also temporary, as well as the next government." he added. Tobing agreed with the condition that political parties should withdraw their representatives in DPR if based on the investigation, the parliamentary seats were won unfairly during the election. The problem actually is not just simply the word temporary. If it is traced from the previous KPU meeting, there are more problems, particularly which affect the interest of small political parties, or more specifically, the interest of KPU members from small political parties. On Monday, KPU members, minus 5 government representatives, held a meeting in Hotel Indonesia to discuss the enactment of the general election result. But some conditions they demanded for the enactment seem very unreasonable. For example, they want to annul certain articles of the election law which state that only political parties winning 2% or more of the votes are allowed to take part in the next general election. These parties still wish to take part in the next election although they win less than 2% of the votes. They also tried to alter the 'combining votes' agreement (stembus accord) among political parties, so that their parties still have an opportunity to have seats in DPR. Sources in KPU also said that some politicians asked for seats in the people's Consultative Assembly as conditions. People often hear politicians saying that they always speak on behalf of the people, but when the people have made their decision to elect their representatives, many politicians cannot accept the people's decision. So, who is actually not ready to accept democracy? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 9 Aug 1999 jam 08:21:36 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
