No need to form a new political party: Soeharto

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto yesterday dismissed recent attempts to form a new political party when he said that the existing three parties are adequate.

"Let's not have any more aspirations for a new party," Soeharto was quoted by Abdul Gafur, a deputy chief of the ruling Golkar, as saying.

Gafur, in his capacity as chairman of Gakpi, an organization affiliated with Golkar, reported to the President about the organization's national meeting on June 24.

Soeharto said that the nation once had nine political parties and Golkar. A national consensus was then reached in 1973 to consolidate the groupings into three: the Moslem-based United Development Party (PPP), the nationalist-Christian alliance Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) and Golkar.

The decision was taken to maintain national stability, Soeharto pointed out.

Spearheaded by outspoken politician Sri Bintang Pamungkas, a group of people have been reportedly making preparations to form a new political party. Citing the inadequacy of the existing parties to voice people's aspirations, Bintang said he has been contacting some groups and building support for his endeavors.

Apart from expressing opposition to the plan to form a new political party, the President noted that there were groups in society who gauged the successes and failures of national development by Western standards.

"The President was aware of a group of people who try to adopt other people's thinking -- Western thinking," said Gafur.

He added that those people also saw the nation's development as a complete failure, because there were marked disparities among social groups. "This is all untrue," remarked Gafur.

Gafur would not reveal the identities of the people in question, but when asked whether they included intellectuals, he replied: "Highly intellectual individuals."

"These people have to be approached through dialogs," Gafur, a former minister of youth affairs, said.

He said the President pointed out, however, that the majority of the Indonesian people were still faithful to the 1945 Constitution and democracy based on the state ideology, Pancasila.

Gafur quoted Soeharto as saying that while freedom is guaranteed in the Constitution, there are rules which must be obeyed.

"If you go through a red light, you will be arrested," Gafur said in an analogy. (mds)