Leftist groups out to destroy Golkar: Team

Leftist groups out to destroy Golkar: Team

A'an Suryana and Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A team established to save Golkar is accusing certain leftist
groups of trying to dissolve the party by exploiting corruption
allegations against its chairman Akbar Tandjung, a suspect in a
Rp 54.6 billion financial scandal involving the State Logistics
Agency (Bulog).

"We consider Akbar to be their intermediate target only. Their
ultimate goal is former president Soeharto, the Indonesian
military and Golkar," team member Suhardiman said in Jakarta on
Sunday.

He refused, however, to name the groups, saying only that they
were in the leftist-oriented camps.

Golkar, the main political bandwagon of former dictator
Soeharto, has once again come under intense public scrutiny
following the announcement by the Attorney General's Office that
its chairman Akbar, who is also the speaker of the House of
Representatives (DPR), had been charged as a suspect in a high
profile financial scandal that took place when he was
minister/state secretary during former president B.J. Habibie's
short stint in 1999.

The Attorney General's Office has scheduled Feb. 4 as the
first day on which Akbar will be investigated as a suspect. A
guilty verdict, if the case is ever brought to court at all,
would inevitably lead to Golkar's dissolution as the funds were
allegedly used by the party to finance its campaign in the 1999
general election.

To save it from being dissolved, Golkar has formed a "Party
Salvation Council", whose main task is to distance the party from
its chairman Akbar.

The council, which was formed last Thursday during a meeting
between the party's board of patrons and its central executive
committee, is headed by former housing minister Cosmas Batubara,
with members including Suhardiman, Arnold A. Baramuli, Muladi and
Pinantun Hutasoit.

Suhardiman, who once earned himself the title of "political
soothsayer", said on Sunday that the leftist groups had found
fresh ammunition against Golkar, the second biggest faction in
the House with 120 members, since the financial scam first
surfaced in 2001.

Asked if the efforts to rescue Golkar included plans to remove
Akbar from the party's chairmanship, Suhardiman emphasized that
his "rescue team" did not deal with operational matters, such as
the decision to hold an extraordinary congress.

"We will only offer suggestions and advice. The decisions will
depend on the executive board," he said.

Another team member, Muladi, said over the weekend that the
rescue team was established to identify the potential dangers of
Akbar's corruption case by launching its own investigation into
the scandal.

The investigation, he said, was aimed at finding out and
clarifying whether or not the scam originally emanated from the
party, or whether it was simply Akbar's personal responsibility.

"If the party is not involved in the scam, we must fight all
out to clear our name. For Akbar, he would have his own corner to
fight as it would be then his personal responsibility," said
Muladi on Saturday.

None of the Party Salvation Council's members are Akbar
confidantes.

Muladi asserted that the scam should not be immediately linked
to the Golkar Party, despite the fact that it involved party
chairman Akbar.

"To say that Golkar is involved in the scam, this is a
difficult allegation to prove. Golkar has been audited by the
National Election Commission (KPU), and it was also audited while
we were involved in a legal battle with 11 other parties in the
Supreme Court. Those two audits have proved that Golkar never
used part of the Bulog funds," he said.

The 11 parties referred to demanded last year that Golkar be
dissolved, or at least banned from running in the 2004 general
election, for fraud in the last general election. Their demand,
however, was thrown out of court due to lack of evidence.

Muladi said that a clarification was very important to
rehabilitate Golkar's image, which had been in ruins ever since
the start of the reform era.

"This image rehabilitation is important if Golkar intends to
win the next election in 2004," he said.

He revealed that the committee would push the Attorney
General's Office to speed up the investigation into the Bulog
scam.

"The legal process must be accelerated in order to avoid
political speculation," he said.

He claimed that Golkar would help Akbar to deal with the case.

"Akbar must be backed by professional lawyers, and as a symbol
of solidarity, Golkar will provide other lawyers who will give
him political advice," he explained.

Muladi said that the party would also push for a snap
extraordinary Golkar congress.

Muladi denied, however, that such a congress would represent
an attempt to topple Akbar from the chairmanship, in part to rid
the party of Akbar's bad image.