PRESIDENT: POLITICAL ELITE SHOULD OBSERVE CORRECTNESS IN STATEMENTS, MANOEUVERS

Jakarta, April 16 (ANTARA) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked the country's political elite and leaders on Thursday always to observe correctness in making statements or political manoeuvers.

The appeal was made in a recorded speech for publication by electronic as well as print media in the country.

"The allegations that the recent legislative elections were fraudulent and the unfinished General Elections Commission (KPU)'s vote counts forged are definitely premature and not good politics," he said.

Denying the initial results of the elections which were a reflection of the people's aspirations and views was equally harming truthfulness, he said.

"Let us not hurt the people's feelings by making them feel that their aspirations and choices were not trustworthy, " he said.

If indeed fraud had occurred in the recent legislative elections, the President said, the cases should be brought to the courts and the perpetrators punished.

"When I was one of the participants in the elections in 2004 I was also consistent and referred anything we felt as not true to the system and legal mechanism," he said.

He said solution of problems should be justice and not violence or instigations.

He said the political atmosphere in Indonesia, in Jakarta in particular, had heated up during the past week.

"I often noted various comments and statements that were often too strong relating to the implementation of the elections last week organized by the KPU. People have also been seeing various political actions and manoeuvers," he said.

He said although he could see it as real politics in a democratic life he feared all the political comments and actions substantially could create wrong perceptions and distrust among the people.

"Excessive distrust and finger pointing moreover if they are done with anger and without sportsmanship are not a democratic life we are seeking," he said.

Provocations and instigations launched without proof, he said, are not characteristics of civilized democracy.

President Yudhoyono reminded that the stages of the legislative elections from campaigning to voting and vote counting had been peaceful and smooth without any occurance of physical clashes or remarkable incidents.

That shows, he said, that the people of Indonesia have been more mature and wiser in practicing democracy.

The attitude, he said, should be taken as an example by political elite and leaders in the country.

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