Amien Rais yet to decide on planned coalition
JAKARTA (JP): Amien Rais, chairman of the 28 million strong Muhammadiyah Moslem organization, has yet to decide whether he will join a planned coalition of proreform activists.
Amien, a leading figure in Indonesia's reform movement, said in the Central Java capital of Semarang on Sunday that he wanted to study the coalition concept before making a decision.
"Besides, I haven't been contacted (by those who are initiating the coalition)," he said after opening a Muhammadiyah leadership meeting.
The plan to form a coalition of reformists was announced on Saturday by prominent political activists, including Megawati Soekarnoputri, Nadhlatul Ulama (NU) chairman Abdurrahman Wahid, Echo of Civil Society chairman Emil Salim and former energy minister Soebroto.
They discussed the plan which they hope will ensure political reform continues to progress in the country during an informal gathering at Abdurrahman's residence in South Jakarta.
Soebroto said the coalition members would form a loose forum but would not set up a political party, adding that anybody could join the coalition.
Amien also said that Muhammadiyah would not decide whether it would meet its supporters' calls to establish its own political party until the situation had calmed down.
"Muhammadiyah will not decide anything until things settle down and the political map is clear so that we are sure that any step that we take is appropriate," he said, as quoted by Antara.
The leadership meeting that ends today will evaluate Muhammadiyah's past programs, adopt a new five year working program and review the current situation.
Amien said it would be possible for Muhammadiyah to set up a political party if the majority of its members asked for it.
Meanwhile, Sri Bintang Pamungkas, chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Union Party (PUDI), said that his party was ready to align itself with NU's planned political party.
"We (PUDI and NU) could form an alliance if we share a similar vision," Bintang said after addressing a seminar on the monetary crisis at Wijaya Kusuma University in Purwokerto, Central Java, yesterday.
A number of NU leaders said recently that the largest Moslem organization in the country would meet its members an supporters' calls and form a new political party.
Sri Bintang said that the alliance, if it came to be, should seek total economic and political reform, including an end to the Armed Forces' (ABRI) role in politics.
"ABRI could channel its political aspirations through the president, who is also their supreme commander," he said.
He demanded that ABRI withdraw its support for Golkar, the dominant political grouping, and concentrate on its role of defending the country.
Bintang insisted that Golkar should not be allowed to participate in the upcoming general election as "punishment" for the political sins it committed during the 32 years of former president Soeharto's rule.
"Unless the people decide otherwise," said Bintang, a former legislator from the Moslem oriented United Development Party (PPP) who was once jailed for insulting Soeharto.
Said Agil Siraj, an NU executive, said in Yogyakarta that the planned coalition deserved support because it would strengthen the fight to better the nation.
He said that NU and the Indonesian Democratic Party under Megawati's leadership had agreed to join the coalition because the two groups had the same vision and interests. (rms/23/44/45)