Golkar chapters support Habibie's candidacy: Akbar

JAKARTA (JP): The ruling Golkar Party has reiterated its presidential nomination of President B.J. Habibie for the next General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) despite mounting opposition to the incumbent.

Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung said after the party's meeting on Friday that all provincial Golkar chapters in 27 provinces unanimously supported Habibie's nomination for the presidency in the next MPR General Session.

"It is a surprise that all provincial chapters expressed support for Habibie's nomination as its presidential candidate... And they agreed to appoint the party's central board as a success team to conduct lobbies and approach other parties," he said.

He acknowledged in the party's meeting in May that six provincial chapters did not explicitly support Habibie's nomination. East Timor had abstained. The six were North Sumatra, Riau, Lampung, West Java, East Java and Yogyakarta.

"However, Habibie's nomination is the party's decision and stance and we will respect it," he said.

Akbar's deputy Marzuki Darusman said on Thursday there were growing calls to replace Habibie's nomination.

He said Habibie was nominated by Golkar Party in May in the hopes that the party would win 40 percent of the total vote, but provisional tallies showed otherwise, with the party trailing far behind the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Marzuki also expressed doubt on Friday that all provinces had supported Habibie's nomination.

"I did not hear all 27 provincial party chapters give unanimous support to Habibie's candidacy during the meeting... I will have to confirm that again with the party chapters," Marzuki told AFP.

He earlier said the nomination of Habibie would be disadvantageous to Golkar, given, among other things, the impression of his foot-dragging in investigations into alleged corruption by his former mentor and predecessor, Soeharto.

However, Akbar insisted there was no debate during the meeting.

Provincial party chapter leaders could not be reached for comment.

Akbar regretted on Friday that Golkar grabbed only 26 percent of the vote so far, or 120 seats at the House of Representatives, saying that it was far below the party's target of about 41 percent.

He blamed the bad performance on intimidations and terror against the party over the past year.

Golkar reported 114 cases of election violations which victimized the party to the official Election Supervisory Committee, he said. Among them was the attack on Akbar when he was in Central Java during the campaign season.

"Despite ongoing reform and changes in the party, we have been terrorized and defamed... Opinions were made that Golkar is a pro-status quo party," he said.

After the meeting, Akbar also dismissed reports of "success teams" lobbying for Habibie's nomination using money.

"We have never engineered such teams... ," he said, adding there was nothing wrong if any groups wanted to garner support for Habibie.

Prominent businessmen inside and outside Golkar have reportedly collected huge sums of money to buy support for the president's reelection. The sums exceeded far above the legal maximum of Rp 15 million from an individual and Rp 150 million from a corporate body in a single year.

Kontan weekly cited on Friday a cheque of Rp 30 billion sent to the party's election winning team and a donation of Rp 10 billion sent to a party treasurer from a garment firm.

Akbar stated a denial in the weekly, but said he would check with the treasurer.

In Bandung, West Java, the two-day national meeting of the Indonesian Muslim Intellectual Association (ICMI), previously chaired by Habibie, was also expected to discuss national leadership.

ICMI chairman Achmad Tirtosudiro said on Friday the agenda, including the possibility of discussing the next presidency, would be up to provincial chapters.

"Who is better than Habibie?" Achmad said, adding he was quoting noted politics lecturer Ichlasul Amal.

Also expected to attend the ICMI meeting which begins on Saturday is Amien Rais, chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN).(rms/43)