KNPI supports Soeharto with calls for change
KNPI supports Soeharto with calls for change
SURABAYA (JP): The National Youth Committee (KNPI), which is comprised of youth organizations affiliated with the ruling Golkar party, renominated Soeharto on Saturday but remains critical of his 30-year-old administration.
"We ask Haji Mohammad Soeharto to kindly consider our request," the committee said in a statement released at the end of its national workshop that brought together 300 members here.
The support for Soeharto was just one point of a political statement signed by committee chief Tubagus Haryono and secretary-general A.H. Mujib Rohmat and released at the end of the three-day gathering.
The committee said the nation still needs Soeharto at the helm to ensure the continuation of its development. It noted, however, that development gains are not possible without the participation of the people.
So far, about 20 organizations and individuals affiliated with Golkar have announced their support for Soeharto's re-election bid.
The People's Consultative Assembly will elect a president in 1998. So far, only progressive activists from the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) have come up with an "alternative" candidate in its chief, Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Tubagus told journalists that the committee is not just following in the steps of the other Golkar-affiliated groups. "This is a proper forum to voice our long-time desire to propose President Soeharto's re-election," he said.
Reliable workshop sources told The Jakarta Post that the move to renominate was spearheaded by the committee's East Java branch and key central executives. It was not in the original agenda.
In spite of its support for Soeharto, the political statement contained a number of criticisms of the bureaucracy.
The bureaucracy is ridden with widespread illegal levies, corruption, manipulation and collusion -- the ills that "do not allow the quality of development to improve," read the statement.
The committee urged the government to weed out its corrupt practices and uphold the rule of law.
"The practices hurt the nation's development as a whole. There should be serious efforts to create a clean government," the statement said.
The government should be transparent about the implementation of its policies and loosen its grip on power to allow all supervision institutions to function as expected, it said.
On the 1997 general election, it noted that the three contestants -- Golkar, the PDI and the United Development Party -- should not taint the "fiesta of democracy" with empty promises.
"They should quit their old habit of telling lies to voters. Instead, they should have the courage to straighten development policies and offer realistic programs," the statement said.
The youth committee also supports the proposal of the National Commission on Human Rights that Indonesia scrap the controversial subversion law on the grounds that the legacy of the Old Order, when it was drafted, encourages the violation of human rights. (15/pan)