LAKSAMANA.Net, July 25, 2004 11:57 PM
Review - Politics: Coalitions & Complaints
Laksamana.Net - The General Elections Commission (KPU) is scheduled to
announce the final results of the July 5 election on Monday (26/7/04), with the top two
presidential candidates to face each other in the September 20 runoff.
The Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) warned on Friday of long delays in
finalizing the vote counting if the Supreme Court declared invalid a KPU circular on
double-punched ballot papers.
A ruling against the circular would force KPU to recount the votes. Results so far from
106.5 million votes counted out of an estimated 125 million ballots cast show Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono still leading the pack with 35,745,198 votes (33.58%).
Megawati Sukarnoputri has 27,983,836 (26.28%), Wiranto, who plans to lodge an
official protest against the results, has 23,645,484 (22.21%). Amien Rais, who has
conceded defeat, has 15,826,526 (14.87%) and Hamzah Haz has only 3,253,014
(3.06%).
Wiranto told a news conference on Thursday he wanted a recount because too many
irregularities had marred the vote, although several international observers have judged
it largely free and fair.
"Only with that kind of examination can the Indonesian nation be truthful to history
and can whoever wins be accepted as the best choice we have," Wiranto said. "We
demand that the election commission recount the ballot papers manually in the
election commission's central office in the presence of party witnesses."
He said he wasn't complaining because he lost, but wanted to ensure the election
was "clean, fair, honest and objective".
He said his campaign team would file a complaint with the General Election
Commission. If it's rejected, he will still be able to file a suit in the Constitutional
Court.
Wiranto's campaign team said it would present evidence that poll workers inflated
other candidates' results, that government officials were intimidated to vote for certain
candidates and that ballots were cast by underage voters or by voters using dead
people's registration cards.
Forced Marriages
Major and minor parties are now exploring marriages of convenience ahead of the
runoff. On Thursday (22/7/04) Yudhoyono and running mate Jusuf Kalla began their
trawl for coalition partners
Kalla met with leader of the United Development Party (PPP) Hamzah Haz to look
into the possibility of forming a coalition ahead of the September 20 election.
Haz, who is also the incumbent vice president, said grandly "both major candidates
have offered the same thing to the PPP, but I will remain neutral and let the party
decide,"
After the meeting with Haz, Kalla said the pair needed support, not just from the grass
roots, but also from political leaders at the House of Representatives. He conceded
that both Yudhoyono and he were seeking as much support as possible from major
parties in the House, as they realized they could not have a strong government
without support from the House.
Yudhoyono 's Democrat Party only won 7% of the vote in the April 5 legislative
election, giving it 57 seats in the 550-strong parliament, while Golkar won 128 seats
and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) secured 109 seats.
"If we win the election, the PPP will surely be included in the Cabinet." Kalla added,
"we are allocating 40% of Cabinet seats for political parties and 60% for
professionals."
Yudhoyono had said earlier that he would establish a limited coalition only after the
September 20 election and that he would only give a small portion of the Cabinet
seats to politicians, to avoid "horse trading".
Show of Force
Seventeen warships from the navies of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore sailed
across the Strait of Malacca in a show of force aimed at deterring piracy.
The all-year round operation, codenamed 'Malsindo', was launched by Indonesia's
Military Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto on board the Indonesian warship KRI
Tanjung Dalpele on Wednesday (21/7/04).
Also on board were Sutarto's counterparts Gen. Zahidi Zainuddin of Malaysia and Lt.
Gen. Ng Yat Chung of Singapore, and the three navy chiefs, Admirals Bernard Kent
Sondakh of Indonesia, Mohd. Anwar Mohd. Nor of Malaysia and Ronny Tay of
Singapore.
Sutarto said the door was open for other countries that have an interest in the safety
and security of the strait, a vital international shipping lane, to take part either directly
or indirectly. "We are not the only three countries that have an interest in maintaining
security in the Malacca Strait," Sutarto said.
The Strait of Malacca links the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea. Though
narrow and only 600-kilometer long it carries more than one-third of global shipping
and one-half of the world's crude oil shipment each year.
The International Maritime Bureau has said that in 2003, there were 28 pirate attacks
in the Strait of Malacca. Most of the attacks took place in Indonesian waters.
The US has also expressed concern at the possibility of terrorists using the Strait of
Malacca to launch their attacks, using local pirates to help their cause.
However, Singapore's suggestion in March to bring in the US in patrolling the Strait
was quickly dismissed by both Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur over issues of sovereignty.
Each navy will be responsible for the safety of their respective waters, and a 24-hour
hotline will keep them continuously in contact as they each patrol their own waters.
Each country has agreed to provide between five to seven ships for the operation.
Convictions Still Stand
Convictions against the Bali bombers still stand despite a ruling by The Constitutional
Court on Friday (23/7/04) that the law on which the verdicts were based is
unconstitutional, the court's chief judge Jimly Asshidiqie told Agence France Presse
Saturday.
"The Constitutional Court ruling does not apply retroactively either," he said when
asked about the implication of the court's ruling on the Bali convictions.
The ruling was in favor of Masykur Abdul Kadir, who challenged the retroactive use of
the law when appealing against a 15-year jail term for helping the bombers.
Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said Saturday "all legal actions taken in the
Bali case, especially those which already have permanent legal force, still stand. As
for cases which are still in court or in the appeal process, we leave it to judges to
consider," he said.
"Let me make it very clear that every effort is being made by this government, in
cooperation with the authorities in Indonesia, to ensure ... that those responsible for
these horrible deeds are appropriately punished according to the full vigor of
Indonesian law," he said.
In a majority five-to-four ruling on Friday (23/7/94), the judges found one of the
provisions in the constitution stipulates that "the right not to be tried under a law with
retrospective effect" is an inalienable human right.
Lawyers for the Bali bombers said the ruling provided new grounds for appeals by the
convicts who face a firing squad, as well as others sentenced over the case.
They said they were considering demanding retrials for the Muslim militants behind
the nightclub bombings which killed 202 people on the holiday island in October 2002.
Key Bali bombers Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas are under sentence of death
for their roles in the worst terrorist attack since September 11, 2001 in the United
States.
Only a week after the Bali blasts, Jakarta rushed through an anti-terror decree, which
authorizes death for terrorism and limited detention without trial.
Courts in Bali have convicted 33 people for the nightclub blasts. Apart from the three
sentenced to death, they received sentences ranging from life to three years. Jakarta
is also preparing to put Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir on trial again. Police say
they have new evidence that he led the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group
Justice Minister Yusril said prosecutors could revise the case against Ba'asyir by
applying provisions in the criminal code.
Disagreement Over Bills
During a meeting on Tuesday (20/7/04) between House leaders and the government
an objection was raised over the Cabinet Ministry and Presidential Advisory Council
bills
The government considers the contents of both bills drafted by the House of
Representatives to be detrimental to the discretionary power of the president.
Neither House Speaker Akbar Tanjung nor the ministers present, Minister of Home
Affairs Hari Sabarno, State Minister of Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin, and
State Secretary Bambang Kesowo would disclose details of the meeting.
However, chairman of the House Legislative Body, Zein Badjeber, said the ministers
expressed disagreement with the contents of the two bills.
Quoting the ministers, Badjeber said the Cabinet Ministry Bill did not give enough
room for the president to form his or her own Cabinet.
The bill proposes 31 ministries, 21 of which would have supporting offices in the
regions (portfolio ministries).
"The government says that the Cabinet Ministry Bill restricts the discretionary power
of the president in forming the Cabinet. It gives the president no choice," Badjeber
said.
He added that the government had suggested that the Cabinet Ministry Bill only
determine six mandatory ministries: the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of
Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Justice.
The government disagreed with an article in the Presidential Advisory Council Bill that
could be exploited to impeach a president.
During a joint press conference after the meeting, Tanjung promised he would discuss
the government's concerns with leaders of the House factions. He said the House
leaders were not in a position to respond to the issue before they had had the
opportunity to discuss the issues.
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