Amien names Gus Dur as alternative candidate

JAKARTA (JP): Recent meetings between National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Amien Rais and National Awakening Party (PKB) founder Abdurrahman Wahid reportedly resulted in Amien's stated willingness to support the latter as an alternative presidential candidate.

Amien, who in the past clashed with Abdurrahman, said here on Tuesday the idea of an alternative presidential candidate was meant to circumvent the growing polarization between supporters of Megawati Soekarnoputri and incumbent B.J. Habibie.

"There should be an alternative figure. (Support) must not be pooled only for Megawati or Habibie. Our people should not be made to believe there are no alternative presidential candidates," Amien said after addressing a seminar on child welfare.

Amien confirmed he met with Abdurrahman Wahid, better known as Gus Dur, at his house in Yogyakarta on Saturday, and that the two discussed how the public was increasingly divided by their support for Megawati or Habibie.

"Praise be to Allah, Gus Dur, who we known as a very strong person, and I have agreed ... we need a midpoint. We need a true force of reform; an umbrella that would nip in the bud the signs of division among our people," he said.

Amien promised to approach the leaders of other political parties, including the United Development Party (PPP), the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and the Justice Party (PK), to join the new partnership.

"We'll discuss with them a better alternative (to division between Megawati and Habibie)," he said, "This is not a fixed price, but an open-ended choice, but we tend to nominate Gus Dur ...."

"Why Gus Dur? Because he told me he refused to play second fiddle," Amien said. "Besides, he is a man of many positions. He is the teacher of the nation, he is a reformer, among the nahdliyin (members of Abdurrahman's Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama) he is even a wali (respected Muslim pioneer who often has supernatural powers). So he should be given the opportunity to come forward."

Amien previously said he would not serve as anyone's vice president and decided to proceed with his own presidential bid, hopeful that the possible system of one man, one vote in the People's Consultative Assembly would benefit him.

The PPP has openly spoken of the possibility of establishing a reform faction in the Assembly with Amien as its presidential candidate. This idea was endorsed on Tuesday by political observer Eep Saefulloh Fatah in Bandung.

"That makes sense. Besides, Amien is indeed known as a reform figure," Eep said.

Another political expert, Arief Budiman, said in a discussion in Melbourne on Tuesday that if presidential election was held by secret ballot with the one man, one vote system, there was a good chance Megawati would lose.

American observer Harold Crouch, who spoke at the same seminar on the postelection period in Indonesia, believes the candidate who wins the support of the military will come out the winner.

However, he could not say whether the military favored Habibie or Megawati because both of their parties, Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), respectively, were amenable to supporting the military's sociopolitical role.

The two parties also appeared to support the possibility of naming Indonesian Military Commander Gen. Wiranto their vice presidential candidate.

Coalition

In the discussion held by the Indonesia-Australia Business Council, Arief also spoke of three possible coalitions among the major parties bidding to rule the nation.

The first coalition could involve PDI Perjuangan, PKB and PAN, Arief said as quoted by Antara.

The three parties could combine to control 240 seats, or 51.9 percent of the House of Representatives' 462 elected seats. In the Assembly, they would control 34.3 percent of the 700 seats. "They would represent the majority," Arief said.

The second possibility is a grouping of Golkar, PPP and PBB, who would control a total of 222 seats, or 31.7 percent of the seats in the Assembly.

The third possible grouping is Islamic parties -- including PPP, PBB, the Justice Party, the Nahdlatul Ummat Party, the Muslim Community Awakening Party and PSII -- and Muslim-based nationalist parties, namely PAN and PKB. They would control 169 seats, or 24.14 percent of the Assembly.

Arief said if the first coalition materialized, both Muslims and non-Muslims would be accommodated. However, he added, "Amien may not be able to cooperate with Megawati and Gus Dur."

If the second or third groupings materialized, other problems would emerge, including the question of legitimacy.

Automatically

Meanwhile at Merdeka Palace, Habibie told a delegation from the Muslim Youth Movement (GPI) the leader of the winning political party would not automatically become the next president. Habibie then proceeded to reveal his own predictions for the upcoming presidential election, including that the Assembly would comprise eight factions, each with the opportunity to name its own presidential candidate.

Without citing a legal base for his statement, Habibie told the youths the next president should be supported by at least four major factions in the Assembly or six of the smaller factions.

"According to Pak Habibie, a presidential candidate must be supported by at least four large factions, but if the support is from the smaller factions the candidate must get the support of at least six factions," GPI chairman Achmad Muzani said after meeting with the President.

Habibie said the eight factions in the Assembly would comprise PDI Perjuangan, Golkar, PPP, PKB, PAN, PBB, the regional and interest group representatives and the Indonesian Military.

"People must understand, the party which won 34 percent of the vote (in the general election) will not automatically win the (presidential) election," Achmad quoted the President as saying. (05/43/prb/swe)