Moehono elected chairman of PCPP

Moehono elected chairman of PCPP

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Maj. Gen. (ret) Moehono was elected chairman of the Association of Intellectuals for Pancasila Development (PCPP) in its first congress that ended here last night.

Rubianto Wisman, a professor of agriculture from the Sudirman University of Purwokerto, Central Java, was appointed secretary general of the organization established in July.

As widely expected, the congress' electoral board appointed Sambas Wirakusumah deputy chairman.

In the tense election, Moehono -- rector of Jakarta's Krisnadwipayana University -- was closely tailed by Sambas, one of the association's founders.

Congress sources said that the names of other members of the executive board will be announced in Jakarta in about one month.

Moehono had succeeded in securing the open support of a number of organizations, including SOKSI, which is affiliated with the ruling Golkar, and nationalist student group GMNI.

A congress source told The Jakarta Post that there were divisions and different political leanings among members of the organization which, at its inception, disavowed political interests.

"This organization is indeed a political asset," said the source, one of the organization's co-founders.

The source, who requested anonymity, said SOKSI and GMNI were trying to impose their wishes on the organization, adding that prospective members of ICKI, a planned association of intellectuals which never came into existence, had also tried to influence the outcome.

Political observer Riswandha Imawan of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University said the congress, which was opened by Moehono after not one senior official accepted the invitation to inaugurate it, was poorly organized.

"This congress only reinforces the view that it (the organization) was established to mass people together," he said. "An organization like this should first establish statutes, rather than making noises about chairmanship candidates."

"This is why we have to question this organization's ability to heed people's aspirations," he added.

Riswandha said the PCPP had "caught a disease" which the Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals had had for some time; namely, the tendency toward centralization.

"Everything comes from above...This is an organization of command. Those in the lower rungs of the organization need only adjust to those above them," he said. (har/mun/swe)