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Campuses welcome political campaigns

Source
Indonesian Observer - February 22, 1999

Jakarta – Politicians, public figures and university rectors in Central Java have recommended that parties be permitted to campaign on campuses in the run-up to the June 7 general election.

The agreement was reached in a discussion at Amanda Hotel in Bandungan city over the weekend. It was attended by representatives of 112 universities in the province.

Rector of Semarang's Diponegoro University Professor Eko Budihardjo said campaigns on campuses must involve political analysts to ensure that bland propaganda is avoided.

He said parties must not invite huge numbers of supporters to join campaigns on campus. The mechanism of each campus campaign will be determined by each university's leaders, Antara reported.

"This aims to prove that campuses can be good referees for political parties contesting the election," said Eko.

Participants at the meeting agreed the government should be neutral in the election. Also, they said parties must not use public facilities or funds for the campaign period, which commences in early May.

The meeting said 25% of campaigns should be the noisy carnival atmosphere-type rallies attended by thousands of supporters, while 75% should be dialog campaigns.

Rectors said violence must be avoided during the campaign period. They said any violence would be the culpability of all people, whereas parties would be held responsible for any conflict.

Eko said parties wishing to campaign on campuses are banned from raising negative issues or badmouthing certain individuals. If that's the case, analysts say there won't be much to talk about, because Indonesia is chock full of negative issues.

Touching on the issue of money politics, Eko said 24 parties that have registered with Central Java's Socio-political Department have pledged not to buy votes.

As for ballot counting, the rectors said it must be witnessed by representatives of all election contestants, as well as election monitoring bodies.

The meeting called on the mass media to give the public political education, rather than create sensational news. The press should take part in election monitoring efforts, said the rectors.

Eko said the media should also set aside space for unbiased reports on the election, which is supposed to the nation's first fair and democratic poll in decades, even though some opposition figures are still languishing in jail. The campaign period will be held from May 8 to June 6.

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