Fresh call for govt to drop Soerjadi

Fresh call for govt to drop Soerjadi

JAKARTA (JP): Supporters of Megawati Soekarnoputri asked the
government yesterday to dissolve the Indonesian Democratic
Party's (PDI) leadership under Soerjadi after the party's poor
showing in last month's general election.

A statement signed by the leaders of 13 PDI provincial
branches loyal to the ousted party chairwoman, Megawati, said the
party's paltry result in May 29 election was the latest evidence
that the Soerjadi faction was illegitimate because it did not
have majority support.

"The poll served as a covert referendum which, on the one
hand, rejected the Soerjadi faction and, on the other hand,
confirmed popular support for Megawati," the Jakarta chapter's
chief, Roy Janis, told four House of Representatives PDI
legislators yesterday.

The statement was signed by Janis and his counterparts from
West Java, Central Java, East Java, Yogyakarta, Bali, South
Sumatra, Riau, Lampung, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and
East Kalimantan.

PDI has managed to secure only 10 House seats ahead of next
Tuesday's announcement of final poll results by the General
Elections Committee. The party recorded its best election results
five years ago with 56 seats in the House.

Around 50 Megawati supporters from Jakarta went to the House
yesterday to deliver a second petition that Soerjadi's faction be
disqualified. Thousands of Megawati supporters rallied in front
of the House two months ago over the same demand.

Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno, I Gusti Ngurah Sara, Sukowaluyo and
Marcel Beding, four of 17 House legislators loyal to Megawati,
received the petitioners after leaders of the House failed to
meet them.

The statement urged the election organizers not to endorse the
PDI's results because it had not represented the party's
majority, whose political rights had been denied.

The government let Soerjadi's faction of the party, instead of
Megawati's, contest the polls. Soerjadi had been reinstated as
the party chairman following a government-backed congress that
toppled Megawati in Medan, North Sumatra, in June last year.

"Arrogance, ignorance of the rule of law and the use of force
imposed on us during election stages have caused a dilemma for
our Pancasila democracy," the statement said.

Sukowaluyo responded to the statement by saying that the party
had lost about 1,200 of the seats in the House and provincial and
local legislative councils that it had won five years ago.

"The 'coup' for the party's leadership last year proved off
target. Instead, it has disrupted our Pancasila democracy and
sacrificed the PDI, which is a national asset," Sukowaluyo said.

PDI under-representation looks set to force an adjustment in
the House's decision-making process. The House's rules say that
each session and decision must have a quorum and include
representatives of all three parties and the Armed Forces. This
means that a person from each of the parties and the Armed Forces
must sit on each of the House's 11 commissions.

"What kind of Pancasila democracy will there be if a decision
is made in the absence of one faction," Sukowaluyo said.

Sukowaluyo suggested that all parties involved in the
breakaway congress in Medan reflect after the "counterproductive
rigging" of the election and refrain from other maneuvers.

He told the provincial chapters to continue their quest for
legal settlement against the government's decision to recognize
Soerjadi's faction at their expense.

After a year of grueling arguments, the Bekasi, West Java,
Pekanbaru and Riau district courts ruled in favor of Megawati
supporters.

Janis said that Megawati's Jakarta chapter would protest if
the PDI won more votes than it already had. The PDI has not
secured a House seat from its Jakarta constituency as ballot
counting nears completion. (amd)