Megawati gets it right with party lineup: Observers
By Imanuddin & M.M.I. Ahyani
DENPASAR (JP): Megawati Soekarnoputri has sidestepped potential ruptures in her faction of the splintered Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) by appointing all of the right people to the executive board, according to an American political observer.
Jeffrey A. Winters of Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, told The Jakarta Post during the PDI congress here on Saturday that the composition of the board to serve through 2003 was the most acceptable to members.
"Megawati has done her best in establishing the party's executive board," he said of the "special authority" that the congress accorded Megawati to take "extraordinary measures" to save the party and seek the best position for it in the national political constellation.
He cited the inclusion of new recruit Maj. Gen. (ret) Theo Syafei as one of her deputy chairmen. He believed the move was meant to cultivate a good relationship with the Armed Forces, "whose role in political affairs is vital".
Theo joined Megawati's camp only a few weeks before the opening of the congress last Thursday.
Other new recruits in the executive board lineup included Hasyim Wahid, the younger brother of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chairman Abdurrahman Wahid, and businessman Meilono Suwondho.
Winters dismissed the suggestions that the recruitment of new people would create problems.
On the reappointment of Alexander Litaay as the party's secretary-general, Winters said it was likely an attempt by Megawati to avoid any danger of alienating chapters in eastern Indonesian.
"Alexander Litaay is a PDI official who wins sympathy and strong support from eastern Indonesian provinces," he said. Litaay hails from Ambon, Maluku.
Winters also praised Megawati's choice of Mochtar Buchori as her deputy chairman in charge of educational affairs of the organization. "Megawati has placed the right man in the right place."
Mochtar, a former rector of the privately-run Muhammadiyah's Institute for Teacher Training (IKIP), is a senior lecturer at Jakarta-based Muhammadiyah University.
A senior PDI member actively participating in the congress, Frans Seda, also only had praise for Megawati's choices of aides.
"Megawati has accommodated and retained loyal party members in the party's lineup," Frans, a former finance minister in the New Order government, told the Post.
"It's not a matter of accommodating activists of the National Front."
Theo is an activist in the National Front, a group of staunch government critics.
Meanwhile, PDI's deputy chairman Kwik Kian Gie defended the congress' decision to grant Megawati complete authority in the establishment of the executive board.
"Past experiences have proven to us (PDI members) that Megawati has never committed anything unconstitutional. This (was among the reasons) for our decision," he said.
Kwik said there was nothing unusual about the members' placing their full trust in Megawati because a uniting figure was needed in the crisis.
"We need a figurehead to lead the party while the nation is in a crisis. In politics, it's common." He said it was untrue that PDI members had turned Megawati into a cult figure.
Meanwhile, PDI's Jakarta chapter chairman Roy B.B. Janis said his chapter's members had removed themselves from the running for the executive board to concentrate on preparations for next year's general election.
Separately, Meilono said he would be ready to help and work for Megawati, denying suggestions that he joined the faction only to further his political interests.
"I have long cared about and sympathized with Megawati, especially after she lost her PDI leadership in a government- sponsored congress in 1996," he told reporters.
"And you should not forget that my father, Suwondho, was the first chairman of PDI's Jakarta chapter, after the establishment of PDI in 1973." One of Meilono's brothers is Siswono Yudhohusodo, a former minister of transmigration and official of the Golkar political grouping.
PDI was established in January 1973 as an amalgamation of five nationalist and Christian parties.