Harmoko defends government officials' ethics
Harmoko defends government officials' ethics
JAKARTA (JP): Golkar chairman Harmoko said yesterday that
government officials had always maintained their ethics.
He told thousands of enthusiastic yellow-clad supporters in
Pekanbaru, Riau, yesterday, that he had ample proof that the
Golkar-dominated New Order government had been applying strict
ethics.
"There's no reason to doubt that Golkar adheres to a set of
ethics in the government to ensure a clean and earnest
administration," he said.
He cited the existence of institutions such as the Supreme
Audit Body and other monitoring bodies as proof of Golkar's
honest governance.
"Governmental ethics require officials to function as both
servants of the state and, at the same time, the people," he was
quoted by Antara as saying.
"In the context of governmental ethics, the people and the
state are equally important. They are both united like the two
sides of a coin," Harmoko said.
With his flair for animating the crowd, Harmoko received a
great response when he said that officials who delved in
corruption would be prosecuted.
"It's clear that Golkar will not compromise with those
officials," he said.
Golkar campaigners took to the streets yesterday in Sumatra,
Bali, East and West Nusa Tenggara and East Timor.
Ulemas
Golkar was not scheduled to campaign in Java yesterday but its
deputy chairwoman Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, President Soeharto's
eldest daughter, engaged in high profile meetings. She met East
Java's Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) ulemas for a second day running.
Yesterday's meeting in Surabaya was the fourth NU event she
had attended in five days.
Hardiyanti has been actively cultivating support for Golkar in
Central and East Java. Her stature has been growing in recent
months as some have begun lauding her as a possible vice-
presidential candidate.
NU chief Abdurrahman Wahid and East Java Governor Basofi
Soedirman attended yesterday's meeting.
Hardiyanti rejected suggestions that she had approached the
highly influential ulemas to seek support for Golkar in election.
"I am inviting ulemas (to join in development programs)
because, according to my father, the role of ulemas is very
important. So I'm not doing it just for the sake of a Golkar
victory," she said.
She said Soeharto believed the government's development
program could not succeed without the ulemas' contributions.
"Such praise is not aimed at pulling ulemas into Golkar," she
said. "The ulemas from the PPP (United Development Party), Golkar
and the PDI (Indonesian Democratic Party) have an equally big
role in the development process." (mds)