Harmoko denies tampering with the election
JAKARTA (JP): Golkar chairman Harmoko yesterday denied accusations that he has covertly made use of his visits to several regions in the country to campaign for the ruling political organization.
"I never campaign," he told Golkar members during a meeting attended by 2,000 party cadres in Pontianak, West Kalimantan on Wednesday.
"The accusation is exaggerated," he said as reported by the Antara news agency.
The accusation was made by a senior member of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), Soenarjo, during a hearing between Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. and the Commission II of the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Soenarjo said Harmoko appeared almost every night on news programs broadcast by the state-run TVRI and the privately-owned stations, wearing the trademark color of Golkar, as he toured the regions. Harmoko's TV appearances, he said, amounted to electioneering in violation of consensus.
Harmoko is also the minister of information, a portfolio that yields him control over the country's mass media, including the television networks.
Harmoko however responded to the accusation by saying that his trips to other regions were simply a move to consolidate Golkar's strength.
He described the people who "invented" the accusation as those "who do not have any idea about the Golkar organization."
Baseless
"The allegation that the Golkar chairman is conducting concealed campaigns is simply baseless. What I've been doing is meeting with cadres," he said as quoted by Antara yesterday.
Campaigning would mean soliciting support from non-Golkar members, he said.
Meanwhile, Golkar has joined the drive to woo the disgruntled members of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) after their heavy defeat at the recent United Development Party (PPP) congress.
Golkar deputy secretary general Ahmad Mustahid Astari said the organization welcomes anyone from the NU who wish to join.
Many senior NU ulemas have threatened to abandon the PPP in preference for PDI in the next general election in 1997 after the congress early this month. NU, the largest faction in PPP, failed to wrest the party's leadership which went to the incumbent chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum.
Astari said Golkar sees a strong potential role for NU in the organization.
He also pointed out that two prominent NU members, Chalid Mawardi and Slamet Effendi Yusuf, are already in Golkar and hold positions in the central executive board.
"Even NU chairman Abdurrahman Wahid is a holder of a Golkar membership card," he said.
Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. meanwhile ruled out the establishment of a fourth political party as has been suggested by the disgruntled NU ulemas.
Yogie told reporters yesterday that the ulemas' emotions had been further fanned by various parties, including the mass media.
He said the 1985 Law on Political Organizations clearly ruled that only three political organizations are allowed to contest the leadership in general elections.
Anyone wishing to change this law should do so constitutionally, he said.
He said he believed that NU, which has been pledging to quit party politics since 1984, would not change its mind. "NU should be consistent with its pledge," he said.
Yogie said that it would not become a problem for the government if individuals affiliated with NU were involved in practical politics. "It won't be a problem. We know the way NU thinks," he added.
In Semarang, Central Java, noted ulema Sahal Mahfudz reiterated that NU would never return to being a political party.
He said that the idea of establishing a new political party came from ulemas in their capacity as individuals. "NU central executive board never discusses such things," he said. (par/har)