Jakarta – It is truly difficult to differentiate the Suharto New Order with the Habibie "Reform" Order. This was demonstrated when the Department of Justice Political Party Registration Council (P-4 Depkeh) delayed accepting the People's Democratic Party (PRD) registration [to participate in the July 7 general elections], Tuesday, because of the use of terms – which according to P-4 Depkeh – are from the period of the Old Order.

A number of terms were contended such as "Peoples Social Democracy" and "Progressive Revolutionary", which were considered by P-4 Depkeh as "leftist". Because of this, on Wednesday afternoon at 11am, the P-4 Depkeh team will hold a consultation [on the matter] with the Political General Directorate of the Department of Home Affairs and the State Intelligence Coordinating Body (Bakin).

According to one member of P-4 Depkeh, H. Mohammad Zein, the PRD had actually fulfilled all of the administrative requirements, however because of the terms they used, [their registrations] has been delayed as P-4 Depkeh wanted to "consult" with a number of "competent" government bodies. "It would be better, for example, if they used terms which were based on "consultation" in accordance with [the state ideology] of Pancasila", he said.

The actions of P-4 Depkeh disappointed PRD activists. According to PRD activist Faisol Reza, the arguments being used by P-4 Depkeh to reject the PRD's registration are like using the paradigm and forms of thinking of the Suharto Order which used terms such as "New Order" and "Old Order".

"This proves that the paradigm of the Habibie regime in managing the state is still the same as the Suharto regime", he said. As well as the PRD, a similar thing was experienced by the Indonesia Party (Partindo) which used the term "New Emerging Forces" in its constitution.

Meanwhile, sociological linguistic expert, Dr Dede Oetomo, said that in principle P-4 Depkeh should not be able to become a censorship body which take issue over terms used by political parties which are being registered. If they contest particular terms, that means that Depkeh is arbitrarily making an interpretation of meaning of language.

"This is just like the New Order government in shackling the political activities and critical thinking of pro-democracy activist. Do the members of the team still think they are living in the Suharto era"?, he said.

[Translated by James Balowski]