Golkar to select 'nation's best son' for its candidate

JAKARTA (JP): Golkar will select "the nation's best son" for its candidate in the 1998 presidential election, chairman Harmoko said yesterday.

Harmoko spelled out some of the criteria the ruling political group has set for its presidential candidate, but age was definitely not one of them, he said.

Although he refrained from naming anyone who fulfilled the criteria, he made it clear that incumbent 75-year old President Soeharto, "to date, is the nation's best son."

The candidate must have a strong vision about how to unite this very diverse nation, and must be acceptable to all groups in society, Harmoko said after the three-day Golkar leadership meeting at the Gran Melia Hotel.

Golkar will announce its candidate in March 1998 at the meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly, he said.

"Constitutionally, it is unethical to disclose the candidate's name while the incumbent President Soeharto is still carrying out his state duties," Harmoko said. "We have to respect the presidential election mechanism," he added.

He said Golkar would consider the increasing support for President Soeharto's renomination from various mass organizations and individuals, including a number of cabinet ministers, in selecting its candidate.

"To this day, from the First Five Year Development Program (Pelita) to the Sixth Pelita, Pak (Father) Harto is Golkar's best son who is also the nation's best son," he said.

Most political analysts speculate the incumbent, in spite of his age, will accept an offer to be reelected for a seventh five- year term in office in 1998.

Soeharto has not publicly disclosed his intentions after 1998. Each time the question was put to him, he said the matter should be decided by the people in 1998.

He was appointed acting president in 1967 to replace Sukarno, and the assembly elected him president the following year. Since then, he has been re-elected unopposed five times.

Harmoko described Soeharto's leadership in the last 30 years as successful.

He also called the incumbent a "true democrat", because he has always left the question of the presidential election in the people's hands, and never even groomed successor.

Tomorrow, Golkar will hold its 32nd anniversary reception. President Soeharto, in his capacity as the group's chief patron, will lead the ceremony.

Harmoko said Golkar would publicly announce its target for the number of votes the leadership meeting set for next year's general election at the reception.

A "rough approximation" would be about 73 percent of the total votes, he said.

This would be a realistic target, and not one that simply satisfies the leader's wishes, he said.

He denied suggestions that Golkar's large winning margins were unhealthy for democracy.

"If that is what the people wants, is that against democracy? Of course not. UMNO in Malaysia has 86 percent, and democracy works there," he said.

Golkar has won all the past five general elections held under President Soeharto since 1971. But in 1992, its tally of votes dropped from 73 to 68 percent. (imn)