No coalition with Golkar, says Amien
JAKARTA (JP): Amien Rais conceded defeat on Friday but flatly refused to even consider a coalition with Golkar as some of his colleagues have suggested, saying the option would be a betrayal of his principles and integrity.
Informed sources told The Jakarta Post that Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung visited Amien Rais on Wednesday evening to offer him a coalition with the ruling party and presidential candidacy. A source said Golkar would dump its current presidential candidate, incumbent President B.J. Habibie, if Amien was amenable to forming a coalition.
Amien, whose National Mandate Party (PAN) was trailing in fifth place with 6 percent in provisional election returns, rejected the offer. AP quoted Amien as saying he accepted the poll's results "wholeheartedly", but "to make a coalition with Golkar is the last choice I make in this world".
PAN deputy secretary-general Santoso agreed. "Our platform stipulates that we cut off any ties to the New Order regime, whose backbone were Golkar and the military," he said.
Santoso said "how embarrassing ... if out of disappointment we resorted to such an option."
"Pak Amien would not agree to such politicking. He is sticking to his earlier stance that whoever wins the majority of votes will get the presidency," he said.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) remains the front-runner in the election returns. Its chief, Megawati Soekarnoputri, is also the leading candidate for the presidency, but many Muslim groups are concerned because of her apparent favoritism of non-Muslim legislative candidates.
Observers have detected friction within the PAN leadership, because some PAN executives, including deputy chairman A.M. Fatwa, have been sounding out the possibility of a coalition with other parties, including the United Development Party (PPP), other Islamic parties and Golkar.
Another PAN executive, Soewarno Adiwidjojo, who is a retired Major General and former assistant to the Armed Forces chief of sociopolitical affairs, speculated a coalition with Golkar would help control possible "distortion" in the democratization process.
Another PAN deputy chairman, Abdillah Toha, said a coalition would only be considered with reformist parties. "If this is not possible, then PAN would become an opposition party," he said in a discussion held on Friday by Antara, which also featured Nasir Tamara of PPP, Alwi Shihab of the National Awakening Party (PKB) and Marwah Daud Ibrahim of Golkar.
Political observer Dewi Fortuna Anwar told the seminar whoever formed a coalition should prioritize reform of the bureaucracy, which has long been considered an obstacle toward democratization.
Amien could be a pivotal player if, as expected, no party wins a majority, and negotiations on a coalition government begin.
Amien had earlier agreed to join forces with Megawati and Abdurrahman Wahid of PKB to thwart Golkar, but the alliance has shown to be fragile.
For instance, PKB was upset when Amien forged a similar agreement with two Islamic parties: PPP and the Justice Party. Amien's secretary-general Faisal Basri later condemned PDI Perjuangan, because one of Megawati's advisors, Theo Syafei, formed an agreement with at least seven nationalist-secular parties.
Results
Provisional results from the General Elections Commission (KPU) on Friday night showed little movement in the leading parties ranking. PDI Perjuangan led with 38 percent of the 18 million votes counted so far. PKB was second with 19 percent, followed by Golkar (16 percent), PPP (9 percent) and PAN (6 percent).
The votes represented about 16 percent of the estimated 112 million registered voters. KPU has yet to announce the number of people who voted on Monday.
Officials using parallel vote counting at the Joint Media Operations Committee claimed to have tabulated approximately 24 percent of total votes by Friday night. It put PDI Perjuangan in the lead with 35 percent, but was followed by Golkar with 20 percent, PKB (12 percent), PPP (11 percent) and PAN (8 percent).
The distribution of votes nationwide will not be reflected in the way the 462 seats of the House of Representatives (DPR) will be distributed.
Early projections based on votes counted by Friday afternoon, for example, gave PDI Perjuangan 129 seats, or 27 percent of the total. They included 82 seats from across Java, 16 seats from Sumatra, 11 seats from Kalimantan, and seven of the nine seats in Bali, where the party is highly popular.
PKB fared even worse. Its 19 percent of the vote delivered 43 seats, or less than 10 percent of the total. All but four seats are in East Java and Central Java. Three seats come from West Java and one from South Kalimantan.
Golkar is reaping the most benefit from the district/proportional representative system. Based on Friday's count, its 16 percent of the votes translated to 114 seats, or 24 percent of the total seats in the DPR, including 21 from Sumatra, 48 from Java and 22 from Sulawesi.
Actual seat distribution must wait until the last votes are counted. The 462 DPR seats are distributed at provincial level, with each seat equal to the number of valid votes counted divided by the number of seats allocated to that province.
On the basis of the Friday afternoon count, seven of the 18 seats from Jakarta would go to PDI Perjuangan, three to PPP, and two each to PAN and Golkar.
In North Sumatra, where 24 seats are at stake, PDI Perjuangan and Golkar obtained seven seats each, while in third place with two seats was the Love the Nation Democratic Party (PDKB), a Christian-based party.
Meanwhile, the University Network for Free and Fair Elections (UNFREL) said on Friday it had given up tabulating poll results, due to difficulties coordinating some of its 105,000 volunteers.
A coordinator, Hadar Gumay, said the network -- which monitored 12,000 polling places across 22 provinces -- was no longer able to cope with the tabulation of either complete or sample results.
Volunteers were also exhausted, Hadar said. (emb/swe/ylt)