Akbar concedes fissures in Golkar Party
JAKARTA (JP): Golkar Party chairman Akbar Tandjung said on Thursday he suspected members of the party's inner circle of spreading dissension in a bid to topple him.
Akbar was commenting on a letter dated Aug. 14 signed by 12 Golkar provincial chapters, in which call for an extraordinary executive meeting to present a no-confidence motion against Akbar if he failed to take action against his controversial deputy Marzuki Darusman.
"Some people want Marzuki to leave the party, but it's possible that they eventually will target me," Akbar said in a televised interview on TVRI on Thursday evening.
Most of the signatories were from the traditional Golkar strongholds of eastern Indonesia, provinces which garnered substantial votes for the ruling party in the June elections.
The statement cited Marzuki's alleged role behind revealing the scandal which linked the party and privately owned Bank Bali, accusing him of damaging the party's integrity, authority and pro-reform image.
Marzuki has also repeatedly suggested that Golkar review its nomination of incumbent B.J. Habibie for the presidency if it fails to gain enough support for its presidential bid.
Bank Bali paid PT Era Giat Prima, a private company owned by Golkar deputy treasurer Setya Novanto, a Rp 546 billion (US$80 million) "commission" to help it recover loans worth Rp 904 billion from three other banks closed down by the government.
Critics however, allege the money was to finance a bid by Habibie to win the upcoming presidential election.
Marzuki, who is leading an investigation into the scandal, said earlier that the affair could jeopardize Habibie's candidacy.
Akbar defended Marzuki on Thursday, denouncing the participating Golkar chapters as carrying out a campaign of terror in pressing other chapter leaders to sign the statement and for distributing unidentified circulars.
"Why should they use such techniques? We can talk at a meeting any time," Akbar said after opening a seminar on state policy guidelines.
"This issue has been brought to the party's leadership meeting several times before, but every time I explained (the matter) nobody raised any questions."
He said he regretted the letter circulated within the party, which followed an overnight party leadership meeting on Aug. 13 attended by 26 chapter leaders and in which Akbar defended his outspoken deputy.
"Marzuki's attitude has not been running against Golkar's leadership meeting. In assessing the situation, he continues to show the analytical disposition of an intellectual," Akbar said.
Akbar said he knew who had instigated the statement, but refused to identify the person(s).
"As a Muslim, I'm not allowed to accuse somebody without evidence," he said.
Akbar said he would invite the signatories to verify their stance, clarify matters that remained unclear and cross-check on the identity of the individual(s) responsible for the move. He said no action would be taken against the instigators.
The chairman of Golkar's West Nusa Tenggara chapter had retracted his support for the move, he said.
Separately, Marzuki said the pressure for a vote of no- confidence against Akbar was "engineered by Habibie's people".
"Clearly, this is a move which is being masterminded by people around the President, and is a reaction against the disclosure of the Bank Bali scandal," Marzuki told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
"Resorting to this kind of action shows the extent of certain people's desperation," he said.
When pressed further as to the involvement of chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council and senior Golkar functionary A.A. Baramuli, who is known to be one of Habibie's staunch supporters, Marzuki said: "I can only say that that name keeps coming up now and then, and he will also have to be asked whether he knew or had anything to do with this (move).
"As a matter of fact, the name of Mr. Edi Baramuli, who is supposedly related to Mr. Baramuli, came up in a meeting that Golkar held several days ago, and he was the person who initially raised this matter and therefore it would seem too coincidental if these matters were not related in any way," Marzuki said referring to the deputy chairman of Golkar's South Sulawesi chapter.
Marzuki said the demand for an extraordinary meeting to oust him was an exaggerated demand.
"To call for an extraordinary meeting of Golkar is very serious, and one has to have a very good reason for doing it, so if there is no overriding reason, then one can assume that these efforts originate from a very high level."
Marzuki said the party could decide to ask Habibie whether he was aware of the petition.
In an interview aired on Thursday evening by private station SCTV, Baramuli supported the move to sack Marzuki, saying he lacked allegiance to the party's policies. (byg/amd)