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Candidates count on the ties that bind

Source
Asia Times - January 21, 1997

Ong Hock Chuan, Jakarta – Family connections figure prominently in the list of parliamentary candidates for Indonesia's 1997 general elections released on Monday.

Among the 2,293 candidates nominated by the country's three official political parties to stand in the May 29 elections are seven of President Suharto's relatives, including four of his children.

Family connections, however, do not stop with the president where the ruling Golkar party are concerned. Also included on the list are the wives of several ministers and ranking armed forces officers.

The candidates - 829 from the ruling-party Golkar, 730 from Muslim-oriented United Development Party and 744 from the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) - will be contesting 425 seats in the House of Representatives.

Their names were posted in the entrance to the National Election Committee's building on Monday. The Indonesian public has until February 18 to voice any comments on the candidates, which have already passed scrutiny by the country's security apparatus.

The election in May will be the country's sixth since 1971 and Golkar, the ruling party headed by Suharto, has won every election - although in the last election in 1992 Golkar lost a considerable percentage of votes to the PDI, especially among young, urban voters.

On Golkar's list of candidates are four of Suharto's six children: Eldest daughter Tutut Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, second son Bambang Trihatmojo, third son (Tommy) Hutomo Mandala Putra and second eldest daughter Siti Hediyanti Prabowo.

The first three are now members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the upper house of parliament which will form the electoral college to elect the president in 1998.

Other Suharto relatives on Golkar's list are Bambang's wife, Halimah Trihatmojo, Suharto's cousin Sudwikatmono and his half-brother, Probosutejo. The latter two are prominent businessmen.

Also prominent on the list of candidates are Golkar chairman and Information Minister Harmoko and his wife, and the wives of armed forces chief General Feisal Tanjung, the military's head of socio political affairs, Lieutenant-General Syarwan Hamid and the wife of Home Affairs Minister Yogie Suardi Memet.

Tycoons standing as candidates include Bakrie Brothers' Aburizal Bakrie, Bimantara's Tanri Abeng and Sahid Group's Sukamdani Gitosarjono.

Other ministers and prominent personalities, including dangdut (Indonesian folk song) star Rhoma Irama, also feature on the ruling party's list.

The PDI was also not beyond extending political opportunities to family members. The newly-installed party president nominated his wife as a party candidate.

The rest of the list was made up by his supporters. To no one's surprise neither ousted PDI leader Megawati Sukarnoputri nor her supporters made the PDI list of candidates. Megawati is the daughter of Indonesia's founding president Sukarno and was ousted as PDI head last year by a rival faction backed by the government.

Under Indonesia's revised electoral system, elected candidates will occupy 425 of the 500-seat House of Representatives. The remaining 75 seats are reserved for members of the Armed Forces.

All members of the House of Representatives automatically become members of the 1,000-seat MPR which is due to meet in 1998 to elect a president for a five-year term. Conventional wisdom in Indonesia has it that Suharto is likely to stand for another term.

The remaining 500 seats in the MPR will be made up of representatives of professional groups, delegates of provincial-level assemblies and appointees from the three official political parties, depending on what percentage of votes they win in the May general elections.

Independent political analyst Arief Budiman, a former sociology professor at Satya Wacana University, was quoted by wire services as saying the inclusion of the business leaders showed continued "opportunistic tendencies" of Indonesian businesses to stay close to the ruling party. "Why didn't any of these business people join the other parties?" Budiman questioned, saying businesses with close links to the government had an easier time obtaining projects and licences.

All the candidates on the list have passed a mandatory screening, involving the internal security agency, which is officially aimed at removing potential candidates with past communist links.

However, an article in the prominent Kompas daily on Monday said the screening "often is used to weed out potentially vocal parliamentary candidates who could be detrimental to government policies".

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