Golkar to name Akbar presidential candidate for 2004

JAKARTA (JP): The Golkar Party looks set to name its chairman Akbar Tandjung as presidential candidate in its leadership meeting in July, party executive Yasril Ananta Baharuddin said on Sunday.

"We hope that the meeting, which will be held in July or at the latest in October, will decide that the party chairman be nominated for the presidency," Yasril, who is also the chairman of the House of Representatives Commission I for defense, foreign and political affairs said.

He said Akbar's nomination had been made since the other major parties were also set to do the same thing, mentioning the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and the National Mandate Party (PAN), who have proposed their chairpersons Megawati Soekarnoputri and Amin Rais respectively for the presidency.

He said Akbar, who is also the House Speaker, fulfilled all the criteria needed for a national leader to compete with the other parties' chairpersons.

"I have personally talked about it with my friends. But it will be decided officially in the leadership gathering," he told The Jakarta Post.

The next general election is set to be held in 2004. The House is currently debating proposals for an amendment which would allow the president to be directly elected by the people at the ballot boxes.

Under the current system, elections only decide upon the members of the House and the People's Consultative Assembly who then elect a president.

Yasril also revealed that a majority of the participants in the party's plenary meeting, which ended in the wee hours of Saturday morning, agreed to hold the party's national congress after the 2004 general election.

He said if the election of the president was conducted directly, Akbar would be "automatically" nominated in the presidential election.

But if the national congress is held before the polls, there would then be contention as there are several candidates for the chairmanship, such as former manpower minister Fahmi Idris, former sport and youth affairs minister Agung Laksono and former public housing minister Theo L. Sambuaga, he said.

While Akbar's seat looks secure within the party, there has been increasing discontent from senior party members, several of whom are perceived as those who were loyal to former president B.J. Habibie.

Golkar Party patron A.A. Baramuli urged Akbar on Friday to resign and the party be led by a presidium specifically including representatives from the eastern part of Indonesia.

Baramuli claimed Akbar's leadership had failed to accommodate various grassroot interests, particularly those from eastern Indonesia.

"Akbar Tandjung has not heeded the aspirations of party supporters in the eastern part of the country, who in fact contributed most of the party's votes in the last general election," Baramuli said.

Proposing a presidium, Baramuli said it should consist of 10 to 15 people representing the party's constituencies, with eastern Indonesia getting up to five seats.

Prior to the presidential election in October 1999, a number of Golkar politicians raised in the eastern part of the archipelago set up a caucus known by the acronym Iramasuka, standing for Irian Jaya, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, Sulawesi and Kalimantan.

The caucus strongly supported the then incumbent B.J. Habibie, who was born in Sulawesi. Baramuli, a businessman who also hails from Sulawesi, was a strong proponent of the caucus.

"I believe that a presidium system will be more accommodative to all and it is good for the organization in the future," Baramuli said, adding that voters in eastern Indonesia contributed about 70 percent of Golkar's votes in last year's polls.

"This is a fact that cannot be ignored anymore. If Golkar defies these demands for change, its eastern Indonesia voters will withdraw their support," Baramuli warned.

Baramuli also described the party's need to look for another leader in place of Akbar.

"We need a leader who can match Megawati Soekarnoputri, Amien Rais, Matori Abdul Djalil and even Abdurrahman Wahid," he said.

But Yasril on Sunday flatly rejected Baramuli's proposal for the party to be led by a presidium, saying such a collective leadership was only applied in communist systems.

The latest move to return the congress back to its original schedule looks to be a victory for Akbar, who initially agreed recently to put forward the congress to before March next year.

It ensures that Akbar cannot be summarily replaced as Golkar chief, as doing so can only be done in a congress.

Akbar initially agreed to the idea for the sake of consolidating the party's unity.

But Yusril said on Sunday that the party's plenary meeting decided that the party was solid enough so as not to need the congress putting forward.

He said Golkar would not follow the trend of new political parties, such as PDI Perjuangan, PAN or the National Awakening Party, and conduct their congresses this year. (jun/27/edt)