Golkar figures launch new political party

Golkar figures launch new political party

JAKARTA (JP): A group of disenchanted senior Golkar figures
are to complete their separation from the dominant grouping on
Friday morning by officially launching the Justice and Unity
Party (PKP).

"Our new party will meet all the requirements to contest the
June 7 general election and will go all out to win it," vowed
Hayono Isman, a leading figure in the breakaway party, adding
that he expected a number of noted Golkar figures to defect to
the new party.

Gen. (ret.) Edi Sudradjat, a former minister of defense and
security and former member of Golkar's board of patrons, will
launch the new party at the Manggala Wanabakti building in
Central Jakarta on Friday morning. Edi will serve as party
chairman.

The breakaway is yet another severe blow to Golkar and comes
hard on the heels of revelations that two of its strongest allies
-- the 4.1 million-strong Corps of Civil Servants (Korpri) and
the Association of Retired Military Officers (Pepabri) -- plan to
distance themselves from the organization. Although Pepabri has
frequently changed its stance over Golkar, speculation has grown
recently that the association does indeed intend to shift its
allegiance.

Hayono will become the new party's secretary-general. The
party's deputy chairpersons will include Sutradara Ginting, who
is currently a Golkar legislator, former Army deputy chief Lt.
Gen. (ret) Soerjadi, the chairman of Association of Indonesian
Footwear (API) Anton Supit and scholar Meutia Hatta, who is the
eldest daughter of Indonesia's first vice president M. Hatta.

Hayono, who is also deputy chairman of Kosgoro -- an
association of businessmen affiliated to Golkar -- said the new
party registered with the Ministry of Home Affairs on Jan. 8.

The party is now working to set up chapters in all of the
country's 27 provinces and branch offices in more than 100
regencies.

"Our short-term objective is to install executive boards in
all provinces and regencies," Hayono said.

Separately, political scientist Mochtar Pabottingi agreed the
new party and the impending exodus of cadres would come as a
"major blow" to Golkar. He suspected the exodus would encourage
the civil servants corps and Pepabri to officially sever their
ties with Golkar.

"Golkar is digging its own grave," he said.

Mochtar called on Golkar to dissolve and then reform into a
new party. That way, he said, the party would cease to be
associated with the corrupt and authoritarian government headed
by former president Soeharto.

"It will be useless for Golkar to try to go on because all of
its noted figures are leaving one by one," he said.

He said that Golkar's representation in the House of
Representatives would be drastically reduced after the June
general election.

Despite repeated electoral victories in the past, he said that
Golkar was in fact a fragile and weak organization because its
existence depended on the political interests of individuals in
Soeharto's New Order government.

Separately, the popular faction of the splintered Indonesian
Democratic Party (PDI) blamed Golkar for the stalemate in the
deliberation, accusing it of "committing political crimes" and of
"attempting to manipulate the general election."

Jacob Tobing, deputy chairman of PDI center for planning and
development, said Golkar's insistence in the deliberation was
evidence that it was planning to manipulate the election.

Meanwhile, Mochtar welcomed the multi-party system proposed
for the June election. "It will create a legitimate and
democratic government because it will be difficult for any single
party contesting the election to secure a majority victory," he
said. (rms)