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Prabowo clarifies commitment to democracy

JAKARTA — Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto has denied that he favoured a return to an authoritarian form of government, following earlier reports that he would change the electoral system to concentrate power in the President if he was elected.

Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto (right) greets his supporters during his election campaign rally in Bali, Indonesia, on Sunday. Indonesia will hold its presidential poll on July 9. Photo: AP

Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto (right) greets his supporters during his election campaign rally in Bali, Indonesia, on Sunday. Indonesia will hold its presidential poll on July 9. Photo: AP

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JAKARTA — Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto has denied that he favoured a return to an authoritarian form of government, following earlier reports that he would change the electoral system to concentrate power in the President if he was elected.

“No, I am not proposing going back to any form of undemocratic system. It’s way past us. Our people are already comfortable with democracy,” the Australian National University’s (ANU) New Mandala website quoted Mr Prabowo as saying on Monday.

At a dialogue in Jakarta on Saturday, Mr Prabowo had reportedly said that much of Indonesia’s current political and economic systems go against its fundamental philosophy, laws and traditions, and against the 1945 Constitution. “Many of these ideas that we have applied are disadvantageous to us, they do not suit our culture,” he was quoted as saying by The Jakarta Globe.

The 1945 Constitution concentrates authority with the President.

The report added that Mr Prabowo also said that while Western-educated Indonesian elites presume that ideas such as one-man-one-vote, and direct elections for provincial and legislative positions are the best on offer, they may not be “appropriate”.

Clarifying his comments on Monday, he said: “I was just commenting that the original concept of our founding fathers is actually more towards Westminster parliamentary democracy ... You can get majority rule in Parliament, you are automatically chief of the executive.

“In our opinion, it could be cheaper and (involve) less vote-buying ... So that was the context of my comments, not that I (was) proposing to cut direct elections,” Mr Prabowo added.

Dr Edward Aspinall and Dr Marcus Mietzner, ANU Indonesia specialists, noted that it is very rare in the modern world for would-be autocrats to openly state that they want to destroy the electoral system through which they seek to achieve power.

“We probably need to go back to the fascist movement of 1930s Europe to find such explicitly authoritarian sentiments expressed by electoral movements that end up winning elections,” the professors said on New Mandala.

Mr Prabowo’s remarks come in the wake of American journalist Allan Nairn’s disclosure last week, of his off-the-record interview with Mr Prabowo in June and July 2001.

Mr Nairn wrote that Mr Prabowo was looking to establish an “authoritarian regime”, and recounted the former general as saying that “Indonesia is not ready for democracy” because “we still have cannibals, there are violent mobs”. AGENCIES

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