Outspoken Bintang is running for PPP chairmanship

Outspoken Bintang is running for PPP chairmanship

JAKARTA (JP): Outspoken politician Sri Bintang Pamungkas
entered the battle for the top spot of the Moslem-based United
Development Party (PPP) yesterday, saying the current leadership
is too passive to develop the potential of the organization.

Claiming to have obtained the support of some 75 percent of
the 304 PPP branches at the regency level, Bintang said he has
stated his intention to the PPP executive board, chairpersons of
PPP branches throughout Indonesia, the President, Vice President
and other high-ranking officials.

"Many people support me, and I know I can be a better leader,"
he said confidently. "This party and the total political climate
have to be enlivened."

PPP will elect the new leadership in its five yearly congress
next week.

In a press conference to formally announce his plan to run,
Bintang said a growing rush of "undercurrents", a popular
catch-phrase used to describe people's support of certain causes,
had convinced him that he must enter the race.

It is very likely, however, that Bintang will face hurdles.
For instance his term of service in the party is not long enough
to meet the requirements. Besides, he is not even eligible to
attend the party's congress, to start on Aug. 29, as he does not
represent any branch office.

Bintang, however, brushed the problems aside, saying his
supporters will see to it that plenary sessions discussing
party's statutes will, one way or another, result in some bending
of the rules in his favor.

Incumbent PPP chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum, in a bid to make
the party more attractive to intellectuals and younger people,
made Bintang a vote getter in the 1992 general election and then
posted him at the House of Representatives. His recruitment had
once invited criticism because it was conducted in ways not
officially sanctioned by party regulations.

Bintang is known for his critical stance on many of the
government's, and his own party's, leadership's policies. For
some younger people, however, he represents a fresh change from
the usually sedate politicians.

During the last two days alone, for instance, he launched
sharp attacks against Ismail and PPP Secretary General Matori
Abdul Djalil of "weakening" PPP and putting it in a subservient
role to the executive branch of bureaucracy.

Protests

"These two should be held accountable for PPP weaknesses now,"
he said Saturday. Yesterday he said, "I call on PPP leaders who
have failed, who beg for support from the power holders, to
resign and not run again".

During the press briefing yesterday, he also criticized the
government for reducing the people's political rights, and called
on it to take their hands off the political parties, including
PPP.

"I protest any government attempt to interfere with this
party, including the interviews by officials of the Home Affairs
Ministry with PPP leaders who are coming to the congress."

"I protest the military's statement that they are preparing a
number of troops to safeguard the PPP congress next week," he
said. "This country is not in a state of emergency."

Accompanied by a number of people calling themselves "The
Success Team for Bintang", he pledged to bring the PPP up from
its currently "marginal position" to the center of the political
arena.

"I commit myself to improve the roles of political parties,"
he said, while his supporters' murmured "God is the Greatest" and
"If God is willing it'll happen".

Reading out his political statement, Bintang also discussed a
number of issues which he said were crucial to the domestic
political life. This included demands that presidential terms be
limited and political parties be given the right to choose their
own presidential candidates.

Under his leadership, Bintang vowed, PPP will once again
defend the Moslems and the general public, instead of letting
internal, factional bickerings to dominate its activities.

A number of people in PPP have called Bintang ungrateful. "He
came into the party and became PPP representative in the House
because the current leaders asked him to," a source told The
Jakarta Post. "Now he's betrayed Ismail". (swe)