Amien Rais elected new chairman of MPR

JAKARTA (JP): Reform movement figure Amien Rais survived a close race for the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) chairmanship on Sunday.

In a vote which might serve as a rehearsal for the presidential election in three weeks, National Mandate Party (PAN) Amien earned 305 votes to beat his major rival Matori Abdul Djalil, the National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman, by 26 votes.

It was a two-horse race between Amien, a professor in political science, who was nominated by the Reform faction, a coalition of PAN and Justice Party, and Matori, who many believed to have received support from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

But the vote went right for Amien, who set the pace since the start of the count on his way to victory.

Coming a distant third was Indonesian Military/National Police candidate Lt. Gen. Hari Sabarno, who won 41 votes. The rest of the nominees, including Golkar's Ginandjar Kartasasmita, managed only 10 or less than that.

A flurry of hugs swarmed a composed Amien although the Assembly interim chairman Sujitno had yet to announce the official result of the vote. Amien also went to Abdurrahman Wahid, whom he supports for the presidency, and gave the noted Muslim leader a kiss.

While Amien was congratulated by his supporters, Matori strode to the Assembly hall section where PDI Perjuangan representatives were seated and shook their hands.

The victory for Amien, who joined the race at the last minute in place of A.M. Fatwa, came as a deal between the Golkar Party and the alliance of Muslim-based parties called the "axis force", Golkar deputy chairman Slamet Effendy Yusuf said.

"We nominated Amien because he is the right man to accelerate the reform movement. Our choice to show that we are serious in our commitment to supporting the reform agenda," Slamet told reporters.

Amien would not confirm the deal, saying that the votes in favor of him came from various parties.

"You can calculate it for yourselves. Golkar has 120 votes and PAN has 34. I did not know from whom the rest of the votes came, but they must have come from various parties, including the axis force," he said.

He revealed that he contested the election for MPR chairmanship after "a certain party approached me sometime before dusk and urged me not to take a passive stance". He said he could not support Abdurrahman because the interest group faction which he represented did not nominate him.

Amien said he asked for Abdurrahman's approval before he agreed to run for the MPR top post.

"He (Abdurrahman) told me he would go all out for me, but reminded me that the post must be used to fight injustice," Amien recalled.

Amien, who rose to the top of the political scene following his role in a wave of student demonstrations which helped oust former president Soeharto in May last year, promised he would continue the reform agenda.

He said on behalf of the reform spirit he would empower the Assembly, which in the past served to rubber stamp the ruler.

"I will introduce a new tradition of summoning the president every year, not every five years as done in the past," he said.

Abdurrahman, also known as Gus Dur, welcomed Amien's victory, saying the result of the vote reflected a fair and free election.

But Abdurrahman dismissed speculation that Amien's victory would pave the way for Golkar's success in the presidential election, which is scheduled for Oct. 20.

"The present political configuration is subject to change at every minute," he said.

But Golkar deputy chairman Slamet asserted that the party's cooperation with the axis force would continue on Monday's election for the House of Representatives speaker post and for the presidential election.

"Let's see what will happen in the next two events," he said.

Golkar has nominated chairman Akbar Tandjung for the speaker post and incumbent B.J. Habibie for the presidency.

Changes

There were some changes in the names of candidates, with the emergence of Amien, who represented the Reform faction, and Husni Thamrin, who was nominated by the PPP faction. The Reform faction and PPP previously announced they picked A.M. Fatwa and Hamzah Haz respectively.

The Interest Group faction, which was expected to nominate Abdurrahman, named Nazri Adlani, who represented the Indonesian Council of Ulemas, for the MPR chairmanship. Nazri's candidacy dashed the hopes of prerace favorite Abdurrahman Wahid for taking the speaker post.

Abdurrahman is also the founder of the National Awakening Party (PKB), but the party could not nominate him due to his status as an interest group representative.

A dejected PKB legislator Khofifah Indar Parawansa said the party could have nominated Abdurrahman if the MPR did not introduce the interest group faction.

The PKB faction proposed the party's chairman, Matori Abdul Djalil, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle faction named Kwik Kian Gie, Golkar Reform faction nominated Ginandjar Kartasasmita, Crescent Star Party faction chose Yusuf Amir Faisal and the Indonesian Military (TNI)/National Police faction picked Lt. Gen. Hari Sabarno.

Only six major parties plus the interest group faction and Military/National Police faction are allowed to run for the MPR chairmanship, according to the newly endorsed Assembly internal rules.

The vote was conducted secretly, in which each MPR member went to the polling booth to write down his or her choice on a paper and put it in a box.

Originally, the vote was planned to use electronic polling devices equipped at each member's desk. Outgoing MPR secretary- general Afif Ma'roef said the manual system was chosen because many Assembly members were not familiar enough with the new device. (emf/byg/rms/amd)