Follow me or pack your bags, Megawati tells party members
Follow me or pack your bags, Megawati tells party members
A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
In her capacity as chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), President Megawati Soekarnoputri
has admonished her supporters at a national meeting for their
disobedience.
"In order to win the 2004 elections, there are only two
options: follow my orders or follow the orders of others,"
Megawati was quoted as saying by party aide Mangara Siahaan on
Tuesday.
Mangara, emerging from a closed session chaired by Megawati,
said the PDI Perjuangan chairwoman was mad at regional party
cadres, whom she found to be rebellious and failing to obey her
orders.
The session was part of a two-day national meeting, which
opened on Tuesday, held by the rift-riddled ruling party.
Mangara said Megawati was complaining that many party cadres
in the regions did not understand the full scope and extent of
her authority in the party.
In a veiled reference to Mardijo, head of the party's Central
Java chapter, Megawati reportedly said during the session that if
party cadres had chosen her as their leader, they must follow her
orders.
Mardijo was dismissed from his regional chairmanship after he
insisted on contesting the Central Java gubernatorial election
last week, despite the decision of the party's central board for
him to withdraw from the race.
In what may seem a strange move, but which is becoming more
and more common with PDI Perjuangan, the central board threw its
weight behind incumbent governor Mardiyanto instead of Mardijo.
Venting their frustration, PDI Perjuangan members went on a
rampage in the Central Java capital of Semarang following
Mardijo's defeat, accusing the central board of betraying the
party's grassroots supporters.
It was not the first scandal to rock PDI Perjuangan. Similar
conflicts between the central board of the party and its
grassroots members have broken out in Bali, Jakarta and Lampung
recently.
Pramono Anung Wibowo, deputy secretary-general of the party,
said at a press conference here that the decision by the central
board was right and strongly justified.
He said party's chairwoman had the veto over the involvement
of party cadres in the elections of regional heads of
governments.
The party's national meeting opened only a few days after the
ruling party was rocked by a string of internal conflicts in its
regional chapters.
The meeting, held at the Sheraton Bandara Hotel, was attended
by the party's board of executives, leaders from its 30 chapters
nationwide and members of its factions at the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR) and the House of Representatives
(DPR).
High on the agenda of the meeting were recent political
developments and preparations for the upcoming Annual Session and the 2004 general
elections. The MPR Annual Session is scheduled to run from Aug. 1
to Aug. 10.
"The party is consolidating itself through the meeting, as the
2004 general elections and the MPR Annual Session are drawing
near," Soetjipto, secretary-general of the party, informed
attendees at the opening of the meeting.
Party top brass who attended the opening ceremony included
Arifin Panigoro, former chairman of the PDI Perjuangan faction at
the MPR, and the two deputy chairmen of the party, Roy B.B. Janis
and Theo Syafei.