Megawati fires 16 dissenters from PDI board
JAKARTA (JP): Chief of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) Megawati Soekarnoputri dismissed 16 dissenters from her central executive board yesterday for convening a rebel congress.
The board's secretary-general, Alexander Litaay, told the press about the mass dismissal at the party's headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta. He called the congress a coup.
"They have gone against the party's statutes, their action has disturbed the party's and the nation's unity and stability," Litaay read from a statement prepared by Megawati.
The 1994 PDI statutes stipulate that a congress can only be held at the end of each five-year chairmanship tenure.
"This congress amounts to a coup against the legal chairmanship," Litaay charged.
Litaay, however, said the 16 dissenters will be given the opportunity to defend themselves at the legitimate congress in 1998.
The 16 dismissed members included deputy chairpersons Fatimah Achmad, Ismunandar, Subagyo, Slamet Mulyadi, Abdulgani, Abdul Kholiq Murod, Panangian Siregar and Yahya Theo. The others were deputy secretaries-general Eddy Djunaedi, Titi Juliasih Kardjono, Ratih Ratna Purnami and Andi Chaerul Muis Mangga Barani.
Deputy treasurers Mulyono Sutarmo, Untung Sutomo, Neneng Amalia Dendawacana and FX. Oerip Soedjoed rounded out the group of 16.
Meanwhile, the five-day congress of the splinter group is to be opened today by Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. It is being held in Medan, North Sumatra.
Litaay and another PDI executive, Sophan Sophiaan, refused to comment on President Soeharto's endorsement of the rebel congress.
Prodded by the press, Litaay stated that the "congress would bring more crisis to the party. The only way to stop new crisis from emerging is to halt the congress."
"Let the people decide," Litaay replied when asked what his camp would do if the government decided not to recognize Megawati's leadership.
Sophan, however, criticized what he called the government's ambivalent stance on the PDI's leadership crisis.
"The government has said it recognizes Megawati's leadership, but now it's ignoring the party's constitution," he said.
Also yesterday, thousands of Megawati supporters demonstrated around the National Monument in Central Jakarta against the congress.
Some 5,000 people gathered in the park to join the demonstration which was originally meant to be a collective prayer and an expression of sorrow over the bickering inside PDI.
"We demand that the government revoke its endorsement of the congress," a placard-waving protester shouted.
"Megawati is the legal leader of PDI," another stated.
As the demonstrators chanted their support for Megawati, the chairmen and leaders of Jakarta's five PDI branches filed their protest to the office of the Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman.
They failed to meet Soesilo, who was accompanying Australian Defense Minister Ian McLachlan on a visit to President Soeharto. The PDI activists submitted their complaint to two of Soesilo's assistants, Sapardi and Darmalius.
The delegation also failed to meet Minister of Home Affairs Yogie S.M.. He was also meeting with President Soeharto.
The dissatisfied delegation then marched with the demonstrators from the park down the Jl. Merdeka Barat and Jl. Husni Thamrin thoroughfares to the PDI headquarters.
The procession blocked traffic for hours.
Similar demonstrations took place in a number of other cities in Java, including in Yogyakarta. (imn)