New PNI says it targets young people

New PNI says it targets young people

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian National Unity (the new PNI), one
of the latest mass organizations to have emerged in recent
months, declared yesterday that it is targeting the young
generation rather than former supporters of the Indonesian
Nationalist Party (old PNI) which was disbanded in 1973.

Mrs. Supeni, a former diplomat who chairs the new PNI, told
reporters in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, that her organization is
not counting on former supporters of the old PNI, because their
number is relatively small, Antara reported.

The Indonesian National Unity was established this year and
its founders were all identified with the disbanded Indonesian
Nationalist Party, which has prompted the local media to dub it
the new PNI.

The old PNI was one of the largest political parties in the
1950s and 1960s and had provided Indonesia's first president
Sukarno with his main political support.

Its power waned with the decline of Sukarno from power in the
late 1960s. It was ordered to merge with other nationalist forces
and Christian parties to form the Indonesian Democratic Party
(PDI) in 1973. The PDI is now chaired by Megawati Soekarnoputri,
the daughter of the late Sukarno.

The new PNI was launched in October, with Mrs. Supeni, a
roving ambassador during Sukarno's administration, as its leader.

Mrs. Supeni yesterday attended a seminar on the national
political agenda for the next 50 years which was organized by the
Center for Information and Development Studies, a think tank
group under the powerful Association of Indonesian Moslem
Intellectuals.

She said the objective of her organization is to instill a
sense of nationalism and unity among the young generation.

The new PNI is not a resurrection of the old PNI, she said.

"We have our own statutes and rules that are different", she
said, adding that one was a political party, while the other is a
mass organization.

The "new Parkindo" also used the Bukittinggi seminar yesterday
to explain its existence, with its chairman stressing that it has
no intention of reviving the old Indonesian Christian Party, of
which the acronym was also Parkindo.

The old Parkindo in 1973 was also merged into PDI.

The new Parkindo, founded by figures associated with the old
party, stands for the Indonesian Christian Participation.

Sabam Sirait, the legislator for PDI who heads the new
Parkindo organization, denied that his group is an embryo of an
old party.

Sabam said the new Parkindo is looking more to its future
rather than its past. "It's true that we cannot break from our
past, but we must not be bound by our past either."

The new Parkindo, he added, has been active in organizing
discussions, seminars and other activities, and will forge
cooperation with other mass organizations, including the Center
for Information and Development Studies.

He denied the suggestion that the emergence of new
organizations, including Parkindo, reflected people's discontent
at the performance of the three political parties.

"There may be some discontent, but why should this be the
burden of mass organizations?" he asked.

On the political agenda, Sabam said one of the problems
Indonesia is facing now is in forging democracy.

"If we don't solve this problem, we will fall behind other
countries and will lose respect," he said. (emb)