Megawati and Soerjadi should prove popularity

Megawati and Soerjadi should prove popularity

JAKARTA (JP): The two rival leaders of the Indonesian
Democratic Party (PDI) were challenged yesterday to prove who has
stronger popular support.

Deputy governor of the National Resilience Institute Juwono
Sudarsono and observer Novel Ali separately suggested that
Megawati Soekarnoputri and Soerjadi seek legitimacy from the
grassroots level.

Megawati was elected by popular vote in 1993. Soerjadi was
elected PDI chief in a recent government-backed rival congress.
Both claim to be the legitimate PDI leader.

Juwono suggested that PDI and the government let party members
choose who will become their leader, Soerjadi or Megawati.

He said the best way to end the rift would be if Megawati and
Soerjadi reconcile and consolidate the party's leadership.

"The reconciliation should materialize by the end of this
month, before the party runs out of time to submit names for
their representatives in the House of Representatives," he said.

Meanwhile, Novel Ali proposed that Megawati and Soerjadi hold
a showdown in an extraordinary congress, where they can prove who
has the greater popular support.

Novel, a political observer from Semarang's Diponegoro
University, said at a seminar that the congress would be a good
chance for Megawati to prove she has the strong grassroots
support.

Novel suggested that Soerjadi, who was elected PDI chief at
the June 20-22 government-backed rebel congress, should be
involved in the proposed extraordinary parley so the interests of
all rival camps could be accommodated.

"Megawati should not bother over whether the government would
issue a permit for the gathering, because she has the
constitutional right to hold it," he said at the seminar held at
Tidar Sakti University in Magelang, Central Java.

Soerjadi should also support the idea for the sake of PDI's
integrity, he said. So far, both Megawati and Soerjadi have rigid
interpretations of the party's statutes, each claiming to be
right.

Megawati has no reason to reject an extraordinary congress, as
she has popular support. Soerjadi has the government and
military's backing, and has been widely applauded for his success
in increasing PDI's seats in the House of Representatives from 40
in the 1987 general election to 56 in 1992, Novel argued.

Arbi Sanit, a political scholar from the University of
Indonesia, said that PDI activists are being set against each
other and the party's dignity has been insulted.

"PDI activists have the right to stand up and defend their
dignity," he said.

Arbi, an activist of the controversial Independent Election
Monitoring Committee, warned that the government's meddling in
PDI's internal affairs will worsen public resentment.

"If the current political crisis plaguing the PDI is not
resolved, it will undermine the nation's political stability and
adversely affect political development in general," he said.

The government, he said, has got what it wants: splitting the
PDI to weaken it in the lead-up to next year's general election
by withdrawing its recognition of Megawati and putting Soerjadi
-- her arch rival -- at the forefront.

Sri Bintang Pamungkas, who recently founded his own opposition
Indonesian Democratic Union Party, said he is optimistic that
Megawati will be able to maintain her leadership until her term
of office ends in 1993.

"The moral behind the current PDI crisis is that we should not
easily trust anyone," he said.

In Jakarta, pro-democracy lawyers Amartiwi Saleh and R.O.
Tambunan demanded yesterday that President Soeharto take action
against government officials who meddled in PDI's internal
affairs.

"Their action threatens the nation's unity," they said in
a letter, a copy of which was made available to The Jakarta Post.

They said the rebel congress has been deepening the rift
within the PDI instead of resolving it, as the officials
initially intended. (pan/har/imn)