Golkar looking for options to impeachment

JAKARTA (JP): Golkar Party will propose a delegation of power from the President to the Vice President during the planned meeting between major political parties, Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung said on Friday.

Akbar said that Golkar, runner-up to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) in the 1999 elections, opted to seek alternatives other than ousting the President.

"I will bring up the idea in the meeting and we would like to wait and see how other political parties respond to the idea," Akbar, who is also the House of Representatives Speaker, said as quoted by Antara.

When asked whether the meeting between political parties would focus on efforts to put more pressure on the President to resign, Akbar replied: "No, ... it would not go that way."

Akbar contended that currently, delegation of power from President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid to Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri was the most probable solution to the protracted political deadlock. It could also strengthen the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) decree on power sharing issued last year.

With pressures escalating for Abdurrahman to step down after he was rebuked for the second time by the House, Megawati's PDI Perjuangan offered a meeting with its past rivals to discuss steps to be taken against the President after the censure.

The initiative was well received, although its date and official agenda remain undecided.

Speculation is rife that the meeting will confirm support for Megawati to run the government until 2004.

Abdurrahman has until May 30 to answer the House's censure. If his response is considered unsatisfactory, the House will call for an MPR special session to impeach the President.

Separately, PDI Perjuangan secretary-general Sutjipto said that should Megawati become president, it was the course she had to follow rather than her own ambition.

"What I know is from the beginning Mbak Mega had no ambition for the presidency. Being the Vice President, she has to be prepared to take over (from Abdurrahman)," Sutjipto said after the party's internal meeting.

PDI Perjuangan set its target of winning the presidency prior to the 1999 elections in which it finished first. Megawati's presidential bid came a cropper due to her party's failure to win the majority vote.

Megawati presided over the party's meeting on Friday although originally she was not scheduled to turn up for the event.

The chairwoman of the country's largest party arrived in a Mitsubishi Pajero without the usual line of vice presidential security guards, who only reached the place 10 minutes later.

Commenting on the planned meeting between seven political parties to discuss measures to follow the House's second censure against Abdurrahman, Sutjipto said that PDI Perjuangan had yet to set any agenda or specific date.

"We will discuss the matter further internally, as the chairwoman has asked us to keep an eye on how things develop after the second censure," he said.

He further underlined that all chiefs of the parties, including Abdurrahman's National Awakening Party, would be invited.

Political observer Rubiyanto Misman expressed his support for Cabinet reshuffle as an effort to avoid Gus Dur's impeachment that "would be too costly".

He insisted that both PDI Perjuangan and Golkar deserved bigger concessions as they had won the most House seats.

"A major Cabinet reshuffle should give the two parties the most posts and if necessary remove all Gus Dur's men," Rubiyanto, who is the rector of state Jendral Sudirman University in Purwokerto, said. (45/dja)