Megawati installs R&D staff to support candidacy
Megawati installs R&D staff to support candidacy
JAKARTA (JP): Megawati Soekarnoputri has installed a number of
prominent figures including Frans Seda in posts in her party's
research and development center to prepare for her presidential
candidacy.
Megawati, who chairs the popular PDI Perjuangan faction of the
splintered Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), told her staff to
"fight to the last drop of blood on the manifesto agreed to at
the PDI Perjuangan congress in Bali last year."
During a ceremony at the center in Kemang, South Jakarta, on
Monday, Megawati called on her supporters to strive for victory
in the June 7 election to give her the authority to take steps to
safeguard the existence of the party. This, she said, would give
her a platform to fight for the presidency.
Frans Seda, who advises President B.J. Habibie's on economic
matters and served as minister of finance under former president
Soeharto, was named as an adviser. Other notable names drafted
into the party machinery on Monday were that of senior PDI
politician Sabam Sirait, scholar Mochtar Buchori, legal expert
Dimyati Hartono, Maj. Gen. (ret) Theo Syafei and Hasyim Wahid,
who is the younger brother of Nahdlatul Ulama chairman
Abdurrahman Wahid.
Noted economist Kwik Kian Gie will chair the center. He will
oversee 13 divisions staffed by 67 people, including former
Golkar legislator Tjahyo Kumolo, who is now in charge of human
resource development in the center.
In her speech, Megawati said that time was short and warned
that staff would have to work hard to match the expectations
raised at the Bali congress.
She urged the center to place issues of national interest such
as solving the economic crisis ahead of party matters.
In his speech, Kwik said the center could not speak on behalf
of the party.
"Official opinion can only be voiced by the party's central
board," he said.
Kwik was named as the center's chairman in 1989. Five members
of staff were appointed at the same time. Monday's ceremony
formalized his appointment and officially brought the center into
the party machinery. (01)