Megawati Soekarnoputri to petition the President
JAKARTA (JP): Embattled chief of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) Megawati Soekarnoputri is going to the top in her fight against Soerjadi, who ousted her in a government-backed rebel congress last month.
Megawati is taking her grievance to President Soeharto, in his capacity as the coordinator of the 1997 general election. It concerns the General Elections Institute's decision to allow Soerjadi to draw up a list of PDI candidates for the House of Representatives and lower provincial legislative councils elections next year, according to Megawati loyalist Haryanto Taslam yesterday.
Last week the institute gave Soerjadi's camp the necessary forms for the procedure, despite Megawati's protests and statement that she was preparing her own list of candidates.
Haryanto, who is the deputy secretary-general of Megawati's faction, decried the institute's decision. "What the institute did was unlawful. We are going to issue notes of protest to President Soeharto."
A delegation of five members of Soerjadi's board, led by secretary-general Buttu Hutapea, collected the 850 forms from the institute last Wednesday.
Haryanto said the institute should not have given the forms to the delegation as they did not have a mandate from "the legitimate PDI central board", namely Megawati's board.
Haryanto went to the institute yesterday to pick up the forms, but returned empty-handed. Yesterday was the last day for the three political contestants -- the dominant Golkar, the Moslem- based United Development Party and PDI -- to pick up the forms.
Haryanto was received by deputy spokesman Sumaedi who claimed that the institute had actually sent a letter to Megawati requesting that she come and pick up the forms.
"That letter never reached us," Haryanto said.
The government and the military have recognized Soerjadi and the board set up by the congress as the lawful PDI leaders, and decided to bar Megawati's faction from taking part in next year's general election.
Megawati's faction has been holding on to the party's headquarters on Jalan Diponegoro in Central Jakarta while Soerjadi and his camp have set up a temporary headquarters at his official residence on Jalan Denpasar Raya in South Jakarta. Soerjadi, however, has been using letterheads with Jalan Diponegoro as his party's address.
Meanwhile, Megawati's younger brother Guruh Soekarnoputra called on her supporters to continue their "struggle for the truth, justice and democratization of the party and the country.
"I support Megawati not because she is my sister, but because of the truth and justice she is fighting for," he said in Yogyakarta yesterday.
In Jakarta 1,100 Megawati supporters, arriving in two separate groups, held a noisy demonstration outside the General Elections Institute building, demanding the government recognize Megawati and nullify the results of the rebel congress.
Clad in the party's red and black colors, the protesters demanded the institute withdraw the 850 forms it has given to Soerjadi's camp.
In Tangerang, some 30 kilometers west of Jakarta, the PDI's Tangerang regency branch issued a petition supporting Megawati and rejecting the rebel Medan congress. The PDI branch in Tangerang mayoralty issued a similar petition on July 7.
Both petitions have been sent to Megawati's headquarters.
Separately, political observer Riswandha Imawan called on the government and the Armed Forces to handle the PDI crisis with care for fear of possible threats to the nation as it gears up for the general election next year.
"Some political opportunists might appear and try to manipulate the situation for their own interests," he said. (imn/har/18)