Naro says PPP performs poorly under Metareum

JAKARTA (JP): H.J. Naro, an aging but flamboyant former chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), criticized the leadership of his successor, Ismail Hasan Metareum, yesterday.

Metareum has failed to lead the Moslem-oriented party towards playing a larger role in Indonesian politics, although he did manage to suppress the acute internal bickering, he said.

"I will not support his re-election in the forthcoming congress," said Naro, who heads influential Muslimin Indonesia, one of the four Moslem organizations that make up the PPP.

Metareum is also from the Muslimin Indonesia's turf. He rose to the party's chairmanship in 1989 after Naro failed win the government's backing for his re-election.

Naro said he was optimistic the forthcoming congress would chose a new leader because Metareum had once assured him he would not seek re-election.

Naro lost the government's favor after he nominated himself vice president in 1988, a move which irritated President Soeharto who already had his own choice.

When he was on the party's helm, his critics described him as an authoritarian leader who practiced widespread nepotism. However, in the eyes of his advocates, he was a dynamic politician who rarely buckled under the government's pressure.

Metareum is widely believed to have the government's endorsement to retain his post when PPP elects its new board of executives in August.

Observers say that his leadership style, which stresses harmony within the party and accommodating the bureaucracy's will, has won him strong sympathy from the government.

Naro said Metareum had missed numerous opportunities for the 21 year old party to play a more vocal role in the national politics as its supporters expected.

"What he has done is mostly routine tasks," he said. "Under what seems to be a harmonious party life are in fact furious activities to create an elite political group."

Naro, however, said he would readily accept Metareum's re- election if it was decided in his favor at the August congress.

He said he had a number of figures from all factions within PPP that were qualified to replace Metareum, such as Aisyah Aminy, Hartono Mardjono, Matori Abdul Djalil and Mardinsyah.

Strategy

The run-up to the party congress has been dominated by a fierce power struggle involving politicians from Muslimin Indonesia and those from Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Moslem organization, who are eager to end MI's domination in the PPP.

NU scholars will open a controversial meeting in Rembang, Central Java, tomorrow to discuss their strategy to win the battle for party leadership.

Naro played down news that the powerful Armed Forces (ABRI) has lent its support to NU, as seen in the visit of ABRI Commander Gen. Feisal Tanjung to an ulemas gathering in East Java earlier this month.

"I have personally checked it with General Feisal and he said the news is no more than speculation," he said.

He said he hoped that the Rembang gathering, which has received security assurances from ABRI, would come up with a concrete plan and a nominee.

"I strongly believe the ulemas have good intentions and will contribute their ideas to develop PPP," he said. (pan)