Interview by Greg Sheridan – The Indonesian political system does not reflect the wishes of the people and this has led to much of the recent violence in the country, according to Marzuki Darusman, vice-chairman of the Indonesian Commission on Human Rights.

In a remarkably frank interview, Mr Darusman saiid the Indonesian Govt's manoeuvre to oust opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri from the leadership of the PDI had been a 'real setback' for democracy in Indonesia.

'One can trace the whole result of the election to the July incident and the moves to marginalize the PDI', he said.

'We can't just dismiss the loss of the PDI as a normal result. The removal of Megawati was a government-endorsed effort to render the PDI completely ineffective. It reduced it virtually to a non-party. And people interpreted it as President Suharto just being worried that Megawati would contest the Presidency.'

The demise of the PDI created the danger, Mr Darusman said, of a renewed polarization in Indonesian politics between the nationalist governing party Golkar and the Islamic-based PPP.

He also said that while people were not prevented from exercising their vote in Indonesia's recent election, there was 'widespread' multiple voting and election-linked violence.

While he would not challenge the legitimacy of the election, he commented that ' the political parties seem to have accepted the election results, which do not reflect the real views of the public'.

He sees the incidence of widespread ethnic, religious, communal and other violence across Indonesia in the past 12 months as fitting into this pattern: " There is a general restiveness, although it's difficult to generalize, these things do have local contexts and local causes. They have a way, nonetheless, of expressing the mood of the country, a mood of expectation, a mood of change, a feeling of being hemmed in by the political structure."

"It's a situation in which people try to find a way of giving expression to their feelings - a way the existing structure doesn't accommodate."

Mr Darusman also believes Indonesians would like to be able to have a say in the choice of their president: "If you conducted random polling right now Mr Suharto would probably win but if you try to probe more deeply the preoccupations of the public the feeling is there that it's time for a change". "This issue has never been as clearly articulated for people as that but the deeper question is looming larger in people's minds - wouldn't it be possible to have a change in national leadership?"

Nonetheless he does not believe that conflict over the presidential succession will lead to violent conflagration or breakdown in Indonesia: "There is an unwritten consensus that the country should not start from the beginning again."

Mr Darusman acknowledges there have been moves to curtail openness in the Indonesian system, as well as contradictory moves towards greater openness.

"There has been a contrasting picture but it now takes a much greater effort on the part of the government to convince the public that its actions are necessary. There is a test between the Government's will and the people's expectation. Public opinion will be a limiting factor on the Government."

Since its founding in 1993, the Indonesian Human Rights Commission has been seen as credible and courageous, although Mr Darusman, a former Golkar parliamentarian, says the commission is aware of the 'unseen boundary lines' it must not cross.