Megawati chides defiant party members
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
Chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) Megawati Soekarnoputri expressed on Wednesday her indignation at the undisciplined behavior of local party legislators and warned they would pay for it dearly.
Speaking at a party function here, Megawati, who is also the country's president, said she would punish notorious party members by not approving their renomination in the upcoming general elections in 2004.
"They may think they are in the clear now because we can no longer recall them, but I have my own way (to teach them a lesson). They won't be on the list of legislative candidates in the next general election," she said.
Megawati inaugurated on Wednesday the party's provincial chapter office. Accompanying her was her husband Taufik Kiemas and the party's secretary general, Sutjipto.
She said she had received reports that many party members who held legislative posts at provincial and regency councils deliberately broke the party's rules.
"They are hiding behind their status as the people's representatives and have forgotten the fact that they represent the party," she told thousands of party supporters who gathered at the party's new office on Jl. Pelajar Pejuang.
She called on party supporters to remain vigilant with regard to their leaders' behavior.
Megawati, however, stopped short of lashing out at party members in the House of Representatives, including her husband Taufik and brother Guruh Soekarnoputra, who have come under widespread criticism for frequently skipping sessions, though often finding the time to join Megawati on state visits abroad.
In her speech, Megawati also warned party members not to fight over their legislative position and ordered the chief of the party's West Java chapter, Djadjang Kurniadi, to undergo a drugs test, as part of the party's nationwide campaign to combat drug abuse.
In West Java, PDI Perjuangan won 30 of 100 provincial legislative seats in the 1999 elections.
At the inauguration ceremony, riot police prevented some 20 protesting members of the Bandung Students Communication Forum (FKMB) and the Padalarang Society Movement (Gempa) from approaching the venue.
In her capacity as the president, Megawati visited the Darul Ma'arif Islamic boarding school run by Sofyan Yahya, chairman of the West Java chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organization.
Megawati witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on industrial and trading cooperation between cooperatives belonging to the Association of West Java's Islamic Boarding Schools and a number of textile producers -- PT Sunson Textile Mfg, PT Pan Asia Filament Inti and PT Citra Griya Busana.