Government cool on Megawati-PPP alliance
JAKARTA (JP): The emerging alliance between Megawati Soekarnoputri loyalists and the United Development Party (PPP) was greeted warmly by a cabinet minister but received a cool response from the military Wednesday.
Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. said it would be better for Megawati supporters to ally with PPP than to boycott the May 29 general election.
Yogie, who is also chairman of the National Elections Institute, said it was normal in politics to form alliances or even cross between parties.
"You should not dramatize it," he told journalists before attending a cabinet meeting at the Bina Graha presidential office.
Yogie did not think the reported alliance would be a threat to the government because, he said, Megawati had lost her political clout after losing government favor last year.
Megawati, who retains strong grassroots support, was stripped of her Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) chairmanship in a government-sanctioned breakaway congress last year. She was replaced by Soerjadi.
Although she sticks to her claim that she remains the legitimate PDI chief, the government has barred her from running in this month's election.
Frustrated by the government's ban, many of her supporters have reportedly joined the Moslem-based PPP.
The Moslem-based PPP sent the outspoken Mudrick Sangidoe, its Surakarta branch chief, to meet with the ousted PDI leader Tuesday at her residence in South Jakarta .
Mudrick told journalists that he asked Megawati for a blessing for the many Megawati loyalists wanting to join the PPP.
In joint election rallies in several places in Central Java, PPP and PDI activists declared Megawati a "national leader".
Armed Forces Commander Gen. Feisal Tanjung said the authorities were watching the latest development and would intervene if it disrupted the election.
The general said the military did not have any objection to Megawati's supporters joining forces with the PPP in the election campaign provided they did not make trouble.
"We would take punitive action if they disrupted the election. but the same applies to Golkar supporters," he said.
The Armed Forces has been accused of favoring Golkar, which it founded in 1964 to counter the growing influence of the Indonesian Communist Party.
Feisal said the military was not interested in making an issue out of the Mudrick-Megawati meeting.
Golkar chairman Harmoko declined to comment.
"I have no comment. I am busy with Golkar cadres," he said.
PPP chief Ismail Hasan Metareum said yesterday he was optimistic the party's target of 96 seats in the House of representatives could be surpassed if Megawati loyalists supported the Moslem-oriented party.
He said he was delighted at Mudrick's report that 1,000 Megawati loyalists had vowed to vote for PPP in Central Java.
"I believe there is nothing wrong with the Megawati loyalists' decision," he said.
Soerjadi played down yesterday the exodus of Megawati's supporters to the PPP by saying it had happened in other general elections.
"In the climate of democracy, a change of allegiance from one political party to another should not be seen as a calamity. It, instead, indicates the existence of guaranteed freedom of choice," Soerjadi told reporters before addressing an election rally in Dili, East Timor.
Soerjadi said the Megawati loyalists who had shifted their allegiance to PPP were better than those planning to boycott the election.
"People who opt out of the general election deny their accountability to their country," he was quoted by Antara as saying. (06/imn/amd)