Gen. Edi backs establishment of 'new PNI'

Gen. Edi backs establishment of 'new PNI'

JAKARTA (JP): Government officials have given qualified
support to the establishment yesterday of a new organization
called Indonesian National Unity (PNI).

"Let's just hope that it was established because the founders
want to participate and feel responsible (for national
development)," Minister of Defense Gen. (ret.) Edi Sudradjat said
of the organization which was formally founded last night. "We
have to think positively."

The acronym of the new organization is identical to that of
the Partai Nasional Indonesia socialist-nationalist politically
party, established in 1946, which was later merged with other
parties to form the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) in 1973.

In the days before its establishment, people began referring
to the proposed organization as the "new PNI".

About 200 people, including leading government critic Ali
Sadikin, attended the inauguration of the organization yesterday.

Former diplomat Supeni was elected chairwoman. Her five
deputies include Djathi Koesoemo, a PDI legislator.

Another of the deputies, Sutan Ali Asli, called on the public
yesterday not to associate the new organization with the PNI
political party.

In her speech, Supeni said the organization wants to address
the questions of moral decadence, corruption, public unrest and a
host of other issues that have been neglected by government
officials.

The PNI will strive to strengthen nationalism, she said. "We
want to establish unity and to cooperate with various groups, as
long as they are based on the state ideology Pancasila," she
said.

Other figures involved in the PNI are former minister of home
affairs Sanusi Hardjadinata; Usep Ranuwijaya, a professor at the
private-owned 17 August University; and Berar Fathia, who
announced herself a candidate for the national presidency prior
to the 1992 presidential election.

"I don't know whether this PNI will be another form of the old
PNI, but it's better for us to see its establishment as
participation in the national life," Edi said.

Another new organization is the National Brotherhood
Foundation, recently founded by 67 influential public figures,
including former House Speaker Kharis Suhud and former chief of
social and political affairs of the Armed Forces Bambang
Triantoro.

Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security
Soesilo Soedarman called on the public yesterday not to draw
connections between the widely-publicized birth of the foundation
and "the current political situation".

The founders "are old people who want only peace before they
die," he said.

"They are idealistic old soldiers who want to uphold the
morality of the nation. They want to die peacefully...Let them
be. Do we need to prohibit them?" he asked.

Chief of the State Intelligence Coordinating Body Lt. Gen.
Soedibyo welcomed the birth of both new organizations. "But let's
wait and see what their programs are," he added.

Political observer Purwoko of Diponegoro University in
Semarang, Central Java, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the
new foundation was nothing more than a vehicle for certain
interest groups to garner support for themselves ahead of the
1997 general elections. (anr/swe/har)