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)