esp for civic education

Ensuring a Successful General Election

The government has called on the people to hold a peaceful election. The main parties also agree that they would like to avoid unnecessary turmoil in order to hold as democratic an election as possible. The main point in achieving this is to make the general election as free, democratic, and fair as possible. In past elections, the Golkar party mobilized all of the public employees and used various pressure tactics in order to win a majority. If this election turns out to be as undemocratic as past elections, anti-government movements run mostly by university students will become active again. This could lead to the same kind of political instability as that of May 1998.

Another key point will be whether or not disputes between the parties during campaign activities can be prevented. In every previous election, clashes between supporters from different parties have resulted in large numbers of deaths. Since April, there have been reports of small skirmishes between party supporters in several regions. There is a strong possibility that these clashes will result in tragedy once full-scale campaign activities begin. In order to avoid this, the parties need to open lines of communication to deepen their mutual understanding, and to run campaigns that obey campaign guidelines. In addition, policing activities by the police and armed forces will also need to be fair.

Instigators, who some people believe exist, are especially feared. Everyone in the general population agrees that they wish to avoid the kind of troubles that occurred in May 1998 in this election. However, there is still the possibility that instigators will start riots that could spread throughout the country.

Retrived from http://www.jri.co.jp/english/periodical/economic/AERe199902indonesia/

More information click thislink

Vocabularies List

                True (T) and False (F) questions. Find out the answer from the reading above