Golkar to name Akbar presidential candidate for 2004

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)