Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – The government plans to revoke the status of 137 parties as corporate entities following their failure to pass the administrative screening conducted by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.
Letters giving notice of the revocation are being drafted by the ministry, which will ban the parties from staging political activities.
An expert adviser to the minister, Oka Mahendra, said political activities included the recruitment of members, holding members' meeting and fund-raising. "If they insist on continuing their political activities, it would be better for them to form new parties and register with the ministry [for the next election in 2009], or merge with other parties that have passed the screening process," Oka told The Jakarta Post.
He compared the new status of the parties to that of ordinary community organizations, which are prevented from contesting elections.
The plan to issue the letters was announced by justice minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra on Monday on the sidelines of the national congress of the Crescent Star Party which he leads.
Only 50 out of 187 parties registered with the ministry passed the verification process. They are now being screened by the General Elections Commission (KPU) as the final step they must go through before being allowed to contest the 2004 general elections.
The disqualified parties were unable to meet the requirements set out in the political party law, which obliges them to have branch offices in at least 16 provinces, 208 regencies/municipalities and 25 percent of the country's total number of subdistricts.
In response to the move by the unsuccessful parties to seek a legal opinion from the Supreme Court on the ministry's decision to disqualify them, Yusril called on them to file a lawsuit instead. "We will be ready to respond to their lawsuit," he said.
A KPU member said on Monday that Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan had informed him that the court had rejected the parties' arguments. Bagir said he would only issue a legal opinion in response to a lawsuit filed by the parties.
Among the parties seeking a legal opinion from the country's highest court are the Indonesian Nationalist Alliance Party (PANI), the People's Interest Party, the Indonesian Progressive Nationalist Party (PNI Progresif), the New Masyumi Party, and the Indonesian United Muslim Party (PSII).
PSII deputy chairman M. Nur said the party hoped the court would overturn the ministry's decision and allow them to contest the election.
Earlier, PANI chairman Bambang Sulistomo said his party would also file a motion with the Constitutional Court for a judicial review of the ministry's decision, and accused the ministry of violating Law No. 31/2002 on political parties.
KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah said even if the court decided in favor of the parties, they would only have until November 2 to register with the commission.
The KPU is also seeking an opinion from the Supreme Court regarding the planned establishment of a provincial office in West Irian Jaya, which is deemed by Papuan people to be a violation of the law on special autonomy for Papua, which is currently overseeing West Irian Jaya.