Ex-activists group backs Soeharto's renomination
JAKARTA (JP): Former student activists grouped in the Keluarga Besar Laskar Arief Rachman Hakim have expressed their determination to back renomination of President Soeharto for a seventh term in 1998.
The ex-activists aired their support for Soeharto's renomination at the end of their three-day congress yesterday.
Keluarga Besar Laskar Arief Rachman Hakim is an organization of former student leaders who played a major role in Soeharto's rise to power in 1966.
"President Soeharto's reelection will guarantee the continuation of development programs and will guarantee that national leadership remains in the hands of the New Order government," the organization said in a statement read out by deputy chairman Arief Biki.
The leadership meeting was closed by State Minister of Public Housing Akbar Tandjung, who is also a senior member of the organization.
The 1,000-member People's Consultative Assembly will convene in 1998 to elect a new president and adopt the 1998-2003 guidelines of state policy, as well as review laws proposed by political parties.
The ex-student activists' petition was only the latest show of support for Soeharto's reelection. On Wednesday, the Association of Indonesian Retailers and Department Store Managers submitted a similar petition to the House of Representatives.
Numerous organizations affiliated with the ruling Golkar, along with several cabinet ministers and the Legion of Indonesian Veterans have openly called on the People's Consultative Assembly to reelect Soeharto, now 75.
Soeharto was reelected in March 1993 for his sixth consecutive term. He has been in power practically unchallenged for almost 30 years.
As in the past, the debate has reemerged on whether Indonesia's next president should be a civilian or someone with a military background.
The latest debate was fueled by State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie, who said in an interview with the Forum Keadilan by-weekly the future president does not have to be someone from the military.
Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman and former vice-president Sudharmono have stated that civilian and military personnel have an equal opportunity to be nominated as presidential candidates in 1998.
Soeharto, a former army general, became Indonesia's second president in 1968, replacing the country's founding father, Sukarno, who was a civilian.
The former student leaders organization also pledged yesterday to remain supportive of the New Order's development programs and poverty eradication campaign.
They reiterated their stand to reject communism, Marxism, Leninism and other ideologies contradictory to the state ideology, Pancasila, and the 1945 Constitution.
The organization also expressed its support for the Armed Forces' Dwifungsi, or Dual Function, which allows it to play politics.
At the end of their statement, the former student activists denounced widespread corruption and collusion in the bureaucracy. They appealed to the government to do something to end practices involving corruption and collusion.
"Despite of the country's success in its development programs, we still see violations of rules and authority," said the petition.
"We call on the government to take firm action against those involved in corruption, collusion and other illegal practices," it said. (imn)