PDI supporters slam their councillors<\/p>\n
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Grassroots supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party of
\nStruggle (PDI Perjuangan) continued on Tuesday to express
\ndisappointment over the City Council's acceptance of Governor
\nSutiyoso's accountability speech.<\/p>\n
Supporters said representatives on the City Council had
\nforgotten the aspirations of their constituents, who mostly do
\nnot want to see Sutiyoso reelected as governor for the 2002-2007
\nterm.<\/p>\n
"The councillors are no more than political prostitutes as
\nthey have betrayed the people's trust by accepting Sutiyoso's
\naccountability speech," Yohanes Yanuardi, the secretary of the
\nPDI Perjuangan chapter in Makasar district, East Jakarta, told
\nThe Jakarta Post on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
On Monday, 85 members of the City Council accepted Sutiyoso's
\naccountability speech with 57 councillors voting in favor of it,
\n21 rejecting it and four abstaining.<\/p>\n
Only one of the 30 members in the PDI Perjuangan faction
\nrejected the speech.<\/p>\n
With the City Council's acceptance, Sutiyoso had cleared a
\nmajor hurdle in his effort to seek reelection as the city's
\ngovernor on Sept. 11.<\/p>\n
The party's grass roots rejected the incumbent governor
\nbecause as a former Jakarta military commander, he was implicated
\nin the July 27, 1996 incident, when some members of the military
\nand civilian supporters of Megawati Soekarnoputri's rival
\nSoerjadi, attacked the party's headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro,
\nCentral Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The council's acceptance was another harsh blow for them as
\nthey had been disappointed with the central board's order that
\nall party councillors support Sutiyoso's reelection.<\/p>\n
The order, signed by Megawati as the party chairwoman,
\ndivided the 30 councillors of the Jakarta chapter of PDI
\nPerjuangan, which had previously nominated 11 of its cadres,
\nincluding chapter chairman Tarmidi Suhardjo, as gubernatorial
\ncandidates.<\/p>\n
The party's central board threatened to punish councillors and
\nother party members if they refused to comply with the order.<\/p>\n
Thomas Resnol, a victim of the July 27 incident from Central
\nJakarta, said that Sutiyoso's reelection as governor in 1997 was
\na reward from former president Soeharto for his success in taking
\nover the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI)
\nfrom Megawati's supporters.<\/p>\n
"How could Megawati support Sutiyoso's candidacy while he is
\nthe main enemy of the party's grass roots?" said Thomas, who was
\none of the 124 Megawati supporters arrested by the police after
\nthe incident.<\/p>\n
He told Megawati that PDI Perjuangan's stance would bring
\nsignificant political consequences in the 2004 general election
\nas the disappointed grass roots would shun the party.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Kusnanto Anggoro, a political analyst from the
\nCentre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said
\npolitical conflict within PDI Perjuangan resulted from a poor
\nelection system in the country.<\/p>\n
Based on the current system, party representatives in the
\nHouse of Representatives or on City Council did not feel they
\nrepresented the people who voted for them, but as representatives
\nof party leaders.<\/p>\n
"Therefore people are often disappointed by the councillors
\nand other legislators as their aspirations are often ignored,"
\nKusnanto told the Post.<\/p>\n
In a well-established election system, said Kusnanto, leaders
\nin regional chapters would have a decisive authority in political
\naffairs, including in the election of regional leaders.<\/p>\n
"In that system, the party's central board would only function
\nas a coordinating body and would not intervene in decisions made
\nby leaders of the regional chapters," said Kusnanto.<\/p>\n
A district election system would help resolve the problems as
\nthe fate of representatives would depend very much on how they
\naccommodate their constituents' aspirations instead of those of
\ntheir political leaders.<\/p>\n
"In that system, representatives who ignored people's
\naspirations would not be reelected in the following election," he
\nsaid.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/pdi-supporters-slam-their-councillors-1447893297",
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