Golkar no longer seeks funds from Dakab: Akbar

JAKARTA (JP): The Golkar party will no longer seek funds from a charity set up by former president Soeharto as it further distances itself from his disgraced regime, Antara news agency said on Friday.

"Golkar will no longer ask the government for funds from the Dakab foundation," Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung was quoted as saying.

"Golkar is ikhlas (willing) to have the funds from Dakab taken over by the government," Akbar said on Thursday evening in Manado, North Sulawesi.

The Dana Abadi Karya Bhakti (Dakab) charity foundation had been used to help fund Golkar's activities. The charity's assets were worth about Rp 836 billion (US$112 million) in March.

Soeharto handed over all seven of his charities, worth more than $500 million, to the government in late November.

Critics have accused Soeharto of using the charities as a front for accumulating a fortune during his 32-year rule, which ended in May when he stepped down amid the worst economic crisis in Indonesia in decades, political turmoil and riots that killed 1,200 people.

On Wednesday, Soeharto was questioned for more than three hours by investigators over allegations of corruption.

Golkar, Soeharto's vehicle for establishing legitimacy through elections, is distancing itself from the retired general as Indonesia heads towards a general election on June 7.

"(During Soeharto's regime), the law had made it possible for the errors to take place, (for instance) the long presidential term," Akbar told a gathering of religious and community leaders in Manado.

Akbar, who is also Minister/State Secretary, pointed to the 1945 Constitution, which says that a president serves a term of five years and can be re-elected.

It was thus possible for a president to be re-elected an unlimited number of times, he said.

The new government, however, has made some improvements through decrees issued by the country's highest legislative body, the People's Consultative Assembly, to prevent the same mistakes from being repeated, he said.

Akbar also discussed the impact of the emergence of 107 new political parties since May. (swe)