Mega's camp plays down defection

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta

An aide to presidential candidate Megawati Soekarnoputri played down on Wednesday the defection of some legislators from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono camp, saying that the defectors were not from the party's mainstream.

Sukowaluyo Mintoharjo, a member of the Megawati campaign team, also said that every party member was free to decide on what he wanted to do ahead of the election.

"The PDI-P is not alone as none of the other parties are all that compact at the present time, either," he said on Wednesday.

"If some PDI-P members decide to throw their lot in with the other presidential candidate, they are free to do so. We shouldn't be too worried ...," said Sukowaluyo, who is also a former chairman of the PDI-P's research unit.

He was responding to news of a planned meeting at the home of PDI-P legislator Arifin Panigoro in South Jakarta on Thursday evening to discuss proposals to help Susilo win the runoff on Sept. 20.

Earlier, Susilo strategist Suko Sudarso said that a group of former and active PDI-P members, including legislator Julius Usman and Meilono Suwondo, had thrown their support behind the Susilo-Kalla ticket.

Another PDI-P member, Sophan Sophiaan, will also come out in support of Susilo, according to Suko.

"We hope that the support for Pak Bambang will shape up after the meeting, and the day afterwards we will issue a joint statement expressing our political stance," said Suko, a former PDI-P member, after a preliminary meeting with a number of wavering Golkar politicians at the Regent Hotel on Tuesday.

This new development comes on the heels of intensified contacts between Megawati and Golkar leader Akbar Tandjung. The two have met three times since the July 5 presidential election, which saw Megawati finish second behind Susilo. Golkar's candidate Wiranto came third, but now is challenging the election results in court.

Julius said Megawati had failed to put the reform agenda back on track during her time in office.

Some Golkar politicians have also pledged their support for Susilo, a retired four-star Army general. They included Fahmi Idris and Priyo Budi Santoso.

Fahmi claimed the majority of executives of the party's provincial and regency chapters in Sulawesi, except North Sulawesi; Kalimantan, except West Kalimantan; and Java, except East Java, had voiced their support for Susilo and his running mate Jusuf Kalla, who is a member of Golkar.

Susilo and Kalla are running under the banner of the upstart Democratic Party. Recent polls predicted they would win over Megawati and her running mate Hasyim Muzadi in the runoff.

Another Golkar executive, Theo L. Sambuaga, said this development did not signal an internal rift within the party.

"Even though our party has yet to officially decide which presidential ticket we will support, I would suggest that it would be better for us to back the Megawati-Hasyim pairing," Theo said.

By contrast, Golkar deputy chairman Marzuki Darusman said on Wednesday that Golkar was facing a possible internal rift, and urged Akbar not to precipitously pledge the party's support to any candidate until after the results of the runoff were known.

"Golkar will play a prominent role in the legislature as we took the biggest share of the vote in the legislative elections. So, no matter who wins the runoff, a coalition with us will be important," Marzuki said on Wednesday.