Fri, 31 Oct 1997

List of vice presidential candidates draws fire

SURABAYA (JP): Participants of the ongoing congress of the Indonesian National Youth Committee (KNPI) protested yesterday a planned session to draw up a list of vice presidential candidates, saying the notion smacked of political engineering.

A number of delegates said the plan was colored by some of the organizers' political interests.

"The (planned session) of drawing up an inventory of vice presidential candidates is really out of place," said Hengky Widodo, the chairman of the East Java branch.

Widodo claimed that delegates from the Central Java, West Nusa Tenggara, East Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, South Sulawesi and North Sumatra branches were all standing behind him.

Iqbal Assegaff, the chairman of KNPI-affiliated GP Ansor Moslem youth organization, also rejected the idea.

"This meeting should not be turned into an arena for the organizers' political play," said Assegaff who claimed to have the support from other Moslem-based organizations such as Muhammadiyah Moslem Students, Indonesian Islamic University Students Movement and Nahdlatul Ulama Students Association.

KNPI chairman Maulana Isman, however, said the agenda of the meeting had been actually decided by the branches themselves. A week prior to the opening of the meeting on Tuesday, the organizer had written the branches calling on them to prepare a list of their vice presidential candidates.

He denied the agenda was political engineering.

A draft of the congress' recommendations, for instance, says that discussion on vice presidential candidates is needed as a way of educating the public and expanding political discourses.

"(The discussion) is... meant to boost the public's political maturity," says the draft, which is supposed to be adopted and read out at the end of the congress tomorrow.

On the bottom part of the document, empty spaces were given under numerical order from one to four -- to be filled with names of candidates chosen by the congress participants.

Congress sources told The Jakarta Post the four names have actually already been decided by the organizers in the following order: incumbent Vice President Try Sutrisno, State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie, State Minister for National Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita and Minister of Defense Edi Sudradjat.

The 1,000-strong People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) will convene next March to elect a president, vice president and adopt the state policy guidelines.

It has been a foregone conclusion that President Soeharto will be reelected for the 1998/2003 term. Speculation has grown more on who will be the vice president. The four names mentioned above were also those who have been circulating widely as the most possible candidates.

The KNPI plan to discuss the vice presidential candidates, however, is likely to cause a rift within the politically well- connected organization. Maulana, however, said that "as an agent of development and social change, KNPI should be critical and be innovative."

Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. expressed disagreement with the planned session. "Please be patient," he said after addressing the congress. "Why do you have to mention names now? Please wait until the People's Consultative Assembly holds its session."

Ruhut Sitompul, a member of the KNPI Youth Council, also rejected the agenda. "Naming names now will only destroy the organization's unity. It'll cause conflicts within the organization," he said.

The congress is being attended by about 200 delegates from 30 youth groups affiliated with KNPI and representatives of its branches. (nur/swe)