Govt under fire for backing PDI breakaways
JAKARTA (JP): Former minister of home affairs Rudini criticized the government for "hastily" endorsing breakaways of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) who wish to unseat its legitimate chief, Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Rudini, now heading the Indonesian Institute for Strategic Studies (LPSI), said yesterday the government should have been more careful in handling the party's leadership crisis.
"The government should have carefully studied the party's statutes before it decided to allow the dissidents to hold a congress," Rudini told journalists.
Rudini argued that the proposed congress is illegal because PDI's 1994 statute states that the party's next congress should be held in 1998 at the end of the current leadership holder's term of office.
"Any arising problems within the five-year period should be brought into an extraordinary -- not regular -- congress (as the planned one)," he said.
Rudini likened the party congress to that of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which is also held once in five years.
"Any request for discussing urgent and critical state matters should be held in an extraordinary general assembly meeting," he said.
The PDI dissidents, under Fatimah Achmad -- one of Megawati's deputies -- have secured the government's strong backing to hold a leadership congress this month.
Some observers say the breakaways are being used by the government to oust Megawati, daughter of the late president Sukarno, who is known to have been seeking political reforms.
Her supporters have encouraged her to run in the 1998 presidential election.
Megawati, elected by popular vote during an extraordinary congress in 1993, has flatly rejected the proposal for holding a congress, saying it was unlawful.
Rudini said that the government has not been impartial in handling PDI's internal rift. "The government should have summoned the conflicting camps in a mediatory role," he said.
So far, only Megawati's foes have been received by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Armed Forces chief of sociopolitical affairs, Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid.
Rudini also said that holding the congress would destroy the party's unity and influence it's performance in facing next year's general election.
Meanwhile, support for the besieged Megawati remained strong in the provinces.
In Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, some 100 Megawati loyalists took over the party's local headquarters from their rivals on Wednesday.
Hailing from numerous districts in the province, they swore they would be faithful to her.
"We will always support Megawati as PDI's legal chairperson. Convening a congress is against the party's statutes," A. Amir Yusuf, one of the members, told The Jakarta Post.
In Yogyakarta, about 200 of her supporters have been occupying PDI's Yogyakarta provincial chapter office building since Wednesday.
They displayed hundreds of posters and pamphlets at the headquarters' premises to show off their support for Megawati's leadership.
"Yogyakarta is for Megawati," read one poster. "Soerjadi and Fatimah: Don't destroy PDI," read another.
Meanwhile, in Bandung, the chairman of PDI's West Java provincial chapter, Idi Siswaya, claimed that 21 of 25 PDI regency branches in the province support the planned congress.
Branches opposed to the congress are in the Bekasi, Tangerang and Sumedang regencies, along with the Tangerang mayoralty.
Idi called on all PDI members in West Java to support the congress and implement its results. "The congress may sack or retain Megawati," he said. (imn/har/17/20)