Megawati deters defiant party members

Megawati deters 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, short stopped 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.