Observers are warning the 2009 legislative elections could fail because of the poor performance by the General Elections Commission (KPU) in preparing the national event.

At a discussion here Wednesday, members of the Coalition of the Election Monitoring Society, a group of NGOs, criticized the commission for not meeting schedules and for enforcing election regulations inconsistently.

"The KPU did not focus on things that it should have prioritized. This is a sign of the polls body's bad performance," said Jojo Rohi of the Election Monitoring Independent Committee.

He cited as an example the KPU's recent overseas trip to distribute information on the upcoming elections to other countries' election committees, despite the remaining backlog of work here.

The KPU insisted the trip was important to maximize the participation of the 3.12 million Indonesians living abroad.

Several KPU officials traveled to Beijing earlier this week and are planning to visit another 13 capitals worldwide for similar purposes.

Ray Rangkuti of Lingkar Madani Institute criticized the KPU for delaying the publication of the final list of eligible voters and the final list of legislative candidates.

The KPU was originally scheduled to announce the voter data on Oct. 10, but then extended the deadline to Oct. 24. The commission argued that the delay was due to some local election bodies failing to submit updated lists of voters in time.

"I doubt the KPU will announce it (the information) on Oct. 24," Ray said.

An estimated 170 million people will cast their votes when Indonesia holds its second direct legislative elections on Apr. 9 next year.

Ray also criticized the KPU for extending the period given to the public to scrutinize the preliminary list of legislative candidates from 10 days to 14 days.

"There should have been a legal basis for this extra time. They cannot just extend it," he said.

A total of 11,868 candidates from 38 political parties made it onto the KPU's preliminary list (DCS). They will vie for 560 seats at the House of Representatives.

The list was published in the media on Oct. 7. The public was given until Oct. 14 to file complaints against candidates on the list, and parties had to respond to the complaints by this Wednesday.

The KPU is scheduled to announce the final list of legislative candidates on Oct. 31.

Wahidah Suaib of the Elections Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) said some political parties had intervened in KPU decision-making. She said the delay in announcing the DCS was evidence of this.

"The KPU did take into consideration the parties' wishes, but it ruined its own credibility. It should have taught the parties to be disciplined in complying with the initial election schedule," she said.

The lowest ranked state teachers will earn at least Rp 2 million (about US$219) per month next year as part of a government effort to improve the quality of national education.

Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo said Tuesday some 27 percent of the Rp 224.4 trillion education budget proposed for next year would be allocated for improving the welfare of teachers, including by increasing their pay.

"We will increase the basic salary of state teachers and lecturers by between 14 and 15 percent, so that the lowest ranked teachers will get about Rp 2 million per month as promised by the president," Bambang said after a cabinet meeting led by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the presidential office.

Bambang said the salary rise excluded the 15 percent increase previously promised for next year for civil servants, police and military officers.

Teachers have long complained about low pay, often citing it as a reason to seek other professions.

The new minimum teacher's wage is nearly double the minimum wage in Jakarta.

The salaries of temporary teachers and researchers will also be raised, although to a lesser extent. Temporary teachers who hold bachelor's degrees will receive an extra Rp 100,000 per month, while those with lesser credentials will earn an additional Rp 50,000 per month, Bambang said.

The government announced last month it would allocate a record Rp 244.44 trillion for the education budget, a major increase from the Rp 154.2 trillion it allocated for this year.

The announcement came after the Constitutional Court found the government and the House of Representatives guilty of violating the Constitution, which states that the education budget must be at least 20 percent of the state budget.

In 2006, the education budget was 9.1 percent of the state budget. The spending rose to 11.8 percent in 2007 and remained the same in 2008.

Bambang said more than half of the 2009 education budget would be allocated for the compulsory nine-year education project.

The education ministry has claimed the rate of school attendance among children aged between 6 and 15 reached 92.25 percent this year. Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Central Java, East Java, Bali and West Sumatra had the highest rates among the country's 33 provinces.

Bambang said the government would also spend more on intermediate and vocational education.

"We will increase the budget for intermediate education both in state and Islamic schools, as well as the budget for vocational schools," he said.

The government will issue a government regulation granting full control of the education budget to the Education Ministry.

Citing an example, Bambang said Public Administration Institutes will no longer receive funds from the education budget.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono vowed there would be no bans on press coverage during the ongoing election campaign period, despite sanctions for violating a law on campaign advertising and broadcasting in the media.

The President was responding to a call by the Association of Indonesian Journalists (PWI) asking him to scrap articles in the law which might threaten press freedom.

PWI said the articles contradicted the 1999 press law, which granted the press freedom from any form of censorship or license revocation.

"Our spirit is toward reform, so there will be no censorship," Yudhoyono told PWI executives at the State Palace on Thursday.

The election law requires the media to allocate equal space, either on coverage or advertisements, for all parties contesting the 2009 legislative election. It mandates the National Broadcasting Commission (KPI) and the Press Council to supervise the media's compliance with the law and impose sanctions on those in violation of it.

"There should be no contradictions in the laws. Therefore, I will ask the communications minister to analyze and resolve any conflicts immediately, because the press is the government's partner," Yudhoyono said.

Newly elected PWI chairman Margiono said earlier the group hoped the government would uphold press freedom.

"We expect to see the President use the rest of his time in office to make a good mark by ensuring press freedom," he said.

"Former president Habibie paved the way for press freedom, and under Yudhoyono's term, we hope it will be guaranteed, with no more threats against journalists."

He said PWI planned to file a judicial review with the Constitutional Court to have the articles removed.

Yudhoyono supported the plan, saying "Everybody has their own political rights and I will not deter them."

"I agree the press law should be entirely implemented for the good of all," he added.

Communication and Information Minister Muhammad Nuh said the government would ensure there would be no censorship, despite the overlapping laws.

"We guarantee there will be no censorship against the media or revocation of licenses, especially during the campaign period," he said.

"Besides, the sanctions called for are only a possibility, and not mandatory."

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday reiterated calls for cutting-edge technology in agricultural research and a limit on the conversion of rice paddies to help improve the country's resilience to the global food crisis.

"With other countries facing food crises that lead to communal conflicts, Indonesia is able to maintain its rice production and supply, even though we are now approaching the peak of the dry season," Yudhoyono said in Subang, West Java, at the opening of the third National Rice Week.

The President also inaugurated a rice flavor analysis laboratory at a research center.

He said Indonesia had managed to quadruple its rice production over the past 40 years, from eight million tons to 32 million tons, through the first "green revolution" in agriculture.

But he warned this "green revolution", brought about by improved genetic resources and the extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides, had resulted in negative impacts on the environment. He added it threatened biodiversity and the sustainability of the rice production system.

"Therefore, we must apply a second 'green revolution' to counter the negative excesses of the first," Yudhoyono said.

"It will also make a great contribution to our rice production, especially in this global crisis.

"The latest technology should be applied in our agricultural research, especially on paddy cultivation, as we move toward self-sufficiency in rice production.

"Hopefully, we can become a net rice exporter and one of the world's main rice producers within the next few years."

Yudhoyono said the rapid population growth rate of 1.3 percent per year and the annual conversion of some 80,000 hectares of rice paddies were the major challenges facing the sector. He added climate change had also affected rice growing cycles and thus affected production.

"I call on regional administrations to limit the amount of land conversions and find a breakthrough in technology to optimize cultivation of underutilized land," he said.

Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyanto was also in attendance at the research center.

"Thanks to the application of the latest technology, we managed to increase rice production by 4.9 percent last year and by 4.7 percent during the first half of this year," he said.

He added the Subang rice research center had yielded over 200 varieties of high-quality rice seeds, which were now grown in 90 percent of paddies nationwide.

West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan claimed his province remained the country's main rice producer, boasting some 1.8 million hectares of paddies. The province produced 10 million tons of dried rice husks last year, or 18 percent of the country's rice production, he said.

"This year, we aim to produce 10.55 million tons of rice from 46 million seeds," he said.

At the event, Yudhoyono handed out high-quality varieties of rice seeds to regents from Indragiri Hulu and Musi Banyuasin in South Sumatra; Subang, Indramayu and Karawang in West Java and Pacitan in East Java.

Recent survey results indicating a sharp decline in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's popularity are merely transient and have no bearing on the incumbent's bid for re-election, an aide said Thursday.

Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng said Yudhoyono would regain his popularity over the next three or four months — once the impact of the fuel price hike wore off.

"It's no problem. We anticipated such a slide as a result of the government's policy to raise subsidized fuel prices," Mallarangeng said.

He said the President's popularity also faltered in the wake of the 2005 fuel price rise, but rebounded quickly.

The results of a recent survey by the Center for Strategic and International Studies were announced on Tuesday, with most of those polled favoring the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) Megawati Soekarnoputri over Yudhoyono, and relegating the President's Democratic Party to fifth place.

Yudhoyono and former president Megawati are expected to square off for the second time in five years in the 2009 presidential election, should they decide to run. In 2004, Megawati lost the runoff by a landslide.

Nico T.B. Harijanto, the survey's coordinator, called the Democratic Party's popularity in 2004 "a temporary phenomenon", with many voters likely to switch allegiance to other parties if the elections were held today.

A survey conducted by the Indo Barometer institute two weeks ago found almost a third of respondents would vote for Megawati, compared to 20.7 percent for Yudhoyono. In May, pollsters put Yudhoyono ahead of Megawati.

Mallarangeng said the results of the surveys were not unexpected.

"Anywhere in the world, a government which passes unpopular policies to save the economy, risks losing its popularity," he said.

He added several surveys were conducted during this period, with differing results.

"The pollsters applied different methods, took different samples and therefore generated different results. To gauge a survey's credibility, we need only look at the samples," said Mallarangeng.

The Democratic Party has dismissed the CSIS's conclusion the party's supporters displayed a low level of loyalty.

"Yudhoyono and the Democratic Party are two sides of the same coin. If his popularity falls, it affects the party. We need to look at the survey comprehensively because it may not represent everything," he said.

The government hopes to remove as many as 22,000 children from hard labor and provide assistance to 2,000 poor families by 2011, under the second phase of a program launched here Wednesday.

The second phase, a five-year project to support the National Action Plan for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor, started last year.

The first phase of the project, conducted in Jakarta, West Java, East Java, North Sumatra and East Kalimantan between 2002 and 2007, focused on assisting children involved in the drugs trade and in informal industries such as domestic industries and offshore mining.

During the first phase of the project, 2,154 children were taken out of the worst forms of labor and 27,078 others were prevented from becoming laborers, Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno said.

"But we have yet to see significant results from this project," he said at the ceremony to launch the program.

"Overcoming the problems of child labor should start with making improvements in the demographic, education and health systems."

He said such improvements included finding ways to control population growth and to enhance the quality of family life, especially in relation to education and health.

At the same event, State Minister for Women's Empowerment Meutia Farida Hatta said millions of Indonesian children were forced to drop out of school to enter the workforce before they had even completed their basic education.

These children are trapped in this situation because they have to help provide for their poor families, she added.

"Government data reveal that currently about 11.7 million children have dropped out of elementary or secondary school," Meutia said.

"They hover around the city streets and work as buskers or beggars, while others become domestic workers or laborers in plantations and factories."

It is estimated more than 1.5 million children aged between 10 and 17 years are employed in the agricultural sector. The three provinces with the most child laborers in the sector are North Sumatra with 155,196 children, Central Java with 204,406 children and East Java with 224,075 children, she added.

According to International Labor Organization (ILO) data, about 166 million children aged between 5 and 14 years worldwide are currently involved in labor, 74.4 million of whom are doing hazardous work, such as in the chemical industry.

In Indonesia, about 700,000 children younger than 18 were working as domestic laborers in 2003, according to the ILO.

Most of them were girls from rural areas who were lured with promises of decent work with high wages but were not given details of where they would be taken or their working conditions, it added.

"These children are prone to commercial and even sexual exploitation," Meutia said.

ILO data show 21,552 children younger than 18 were involved in prostitution throughout Java in 2003.

In a bid to deal with the issue, the government has ratified an ILO convention on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor and established a national action plan that features a three-phase program over 20 years.

The program aims to reduce the number of child laborers by providing access to formal and informal education, counseling and internships.

The public has lost faith in the House of Representatives, believing its members put their parties' interests first, a recent survey has found.

Instead, people are looking to the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) to voice their concerns.

The survey, conducted by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) in April, found about 80 percent of 1,200 respondents wanted the DPD to have greater authority as a counterbalance to the House's domination.

"The respondents see political parties and lawmakers as having weak legitimacy because they fail to fight for their constituents' needs and merely pursue their own interests," LSI executive director Saiful Mujani said at the release of the survey Wednesday.

Most respondents believed they could rely on the DPD as the only representative body that was free of party influences.

The survey was conducted three months before the Constitutional Court ruled that political party members were eligible to run for DPD seats in 2009.

More than two-thirds of respondents agreed the DPD should hold equal powers with the House in regional autonomy issues. Under the Constitution, the DPD is restricted to providing recommendations to the House.

About 59 percent of the respondents supported a fifth amendment to the Constitution to empower the DPD, the survey found.

The survey also revealed the DPD members were perceived as being more accountable than House members.

In the DPD election, people vote for individuals, while in the election for House members voters choose political parties. Senior executives of the political parties hold the power to select legislative candidates.

"Half of the respondents assume the selection of House members accommodates the interests of political parties only," Saiful said.

When asked about the institution that would be able to voice their interests, respondents chose the media and nongovernment organizations over political parties, which were chosen by only 11 percent of respondents.

Political analyst from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies J. Kristiadi said he doubted DPD members would be able to defend the public interest once they were given greater powers.

"The weak position of DPD is not about the domination by the House, but because the DPD itself has yet to make the most of its role," he said.

"The DPD's efforts to endorse the Constitutional amendment could be suspicious. It is possible they only want more power."

Denny Indrayana of Gadjah Mada University said he lamented the Constitutional Court's decision to allow nonpartisanship in the DPD, saying it was a setback to the 2004 election system and to the council's existence.

"The inquiry committee will comprise 50 lawmakers. This is clearly a big committee and shows we are dealing with a big problem," House Speaker Agung Laksono said Thursday.

He said all political parties would be represented on the committee, based on the number of House seats they held. The committee will be officially established on July 1, when members will meet to appoint a chairman and formulate working programs.

Lawmakers voted to use their inquiry rights to investigate the government's policy for raising fuel prices in May, which resulted in violent protests across the capital.

The House decision, however, has raised questions of whether the investigations will eventually lead to the impeachment of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, as was the case in 2001 with former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

Agung said the House had no intentions of impeaching the President, despite their opposing opinions on the issue. He said theoretically the inquiry right would only lead to impeachment if the committee found Yudhoyono violated any existing laws.

"I don't see any parties willing to go that far. They are more focused on the government's decision to raise fuel prices, which was supposed to be a last resort," he said.

"So we're asking why they didn't try other options, including conversion of energy or boosting oil and gas production."

Agung said impeachment was not a matter to be taken lightly, and would require the involvement of the Constitutional Court.

Jimly Asshidiqie, head of the Constitutional Court, said fears of an eventual impeachment were groundless.

"The inquiry right is the House's right to carry out an investigation. But this will be an investigation of government policy, not of an individual person," he said.

When asked what would happen if the investigation found the President was in violation of regulations, Jimly said "that is another problem".

He urged the House to publicly disclose all policies to be investigated so there would be no misunderstandings about the issue.

Amien Rais, former People's Consultative Assembly speaker, praised the House decision to use the inquiry right.

"This is good news for us. Hopefully, this will disclose the full range of mysteries and scandals in the government's fuel policies," he said.

He called on university students, responsible for recent violent protests, and the media to continue monitoring the House investigating committee.

"We must monitor the committee's consistency because there is a possibility the government will try to manipulate or influence the team," Amien said.

With the deadline for political parties to register for next year's elections just two days away, the fate of the rival camps of the divided National Awakening Party (PKB) hangs in the balance.

General Elections Commission (KPU) member Andi Nurpati said Friday the poll body was still debating options for settling the dual leadership of the party, which forms the fifth-largest faction at the House of Representatives.

"We are still analyzing the dispute from the perspective of the election law and other regulations," she said.

"We will make a decision on it in a later meeting."

The options include allowing both the rival PKB camps to register with the KPU or extending the registration period.

"The KPU is facing a dilemma with the PKB issue. One article in the election law validates the PKB's eligibility to contest the upcoming elections, but another article requires it to pass the verification process because of the split," Andi said.

The registration period ends on May 12.

The KPU will conduct an administrative verification of new parties for the next three months before announcing which parties are eligible to take part in the 2009 elections.

Justice and Human Rights Minister Andi Mattalata has said the courts will decide which faction of the PKB will be allowed to register with the KPU.

The PKB has been split into two rival factions, one led by deputy House speaker Muhaimin Iskandar and the other by House lawmaker Ali Masykur Musa.

The internal rift started when Muhaimin was dismissed by PKB chief patron Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

The two camps held separate extraordinary meetings earlier this month. Muhaimin's camp reelected him party chairman and Azis Mansyur as the party's chief patron. Gus Dur's camp elected the former president as the chief patron and Ali as the new party chairman.

The secretary-general of Muhaimin's faction, Lukman Edy, who is also the state minister for disadvantaged regions, said he was optimistic the internal dispute would be settled in court before Sept. 9.

"I am sure the legal process in court will end before the due date. We still have enough time to assure our constituents the PKB will definitely contest the election," Lukman said.

"The problem is not about PKB's participation in the election — it's about which camp is allowed to submit the names of legislative candidates."

The South Jakarta District Court will start hearing the dispute on May 15. Lukman said he and Muhaimin would be present at the hearing.

Their camp filed a lawsuit contesting Muhaimin's dismissal and Lukman's dismissal as the party's secretary-general following his appointment as a Cabinet minister in June last year.

Muhaimin approved Lukman's removal at the time.

The faction is also challenging the legitimacy of the extraordinary meeting held by Gus Dur's camp in Parung, Bogor.

Muhaimin said after the extraordinary meeting the dispute would force PKB members to work harder to prevent it from losing votes in the 2009 elections.