No need to form a new political party: Soeharto

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)