PAN to remain reformist

PAN to remain reformist

In the wake of the National Mandate Party (PAN)'s first
national congress which started Thursday, The Jakarta Post spoke
with the chairman of the organizing committee, Hatta Rajasa, who
is the party's deputy to the secretary-general. He is also the
chairman of the Reform Faction in the House of Representatives.
The following is an excerpt from the interview:

Question: You have repeatedly been mentioned as the strongest
candidate to become PAN's next secretary-general. Will you accept
the candidacy?

Answer: My main concern now is the success of the congress. I
hope it will result in brilliant thoughts, especially in
formulating the party's five-year program, perfecting the party's
platform and the party's statutes and also in forming the central
executive board.

Therefore, it is the congress that will decide the most
appropriate criteria for party leaders. The organizing
committee's task is to make sure that everyone gets the same
chance and opportunity to sit on the central executive board.

I don't want to be misunderstood as abusing the position of
committee chairman to gain support for the candidacy.

Should there be many PAN members from the various provincial
executive boards who want me to be secretary-general, I would
consider it as a sign that I should actively participate in
making the party bigger. Therefore, I will do my best to do so.
Yes, I'm ready to be nominated.

What criteria should the future secretary-general meet?

We should keep in mind that PAN should maintain its identity
as an open party which accommodates all the elements of the
nation. It has to be able to widen its popular base so that there
will not be the image that PAN is the party of intellectuals. As
an open party, it surely has to be able to answer such a
challenge and the demands of the community.

The most suitable figure for the post would therefore be one
who is not met with resistance (by party supporters), and one
with the ability to accommodate the interests of all groups so
the party can win the 2004 general election.

Do you believe that you fit that criteria?

Whoever holds the post must be ready for such a challenge.

How would you evaluate the party's performance up to this
point?

PAN has played a strategic role, (although) dissatisfaction is
of course always there. Yet the fact that we were one of the five
top vote-getters in the 1999 general election is a blessing,
especially in light of the fact that PAN is a new party. It's a
good start.

Due to the lack of time before the last election, there were
still many things to do, particularly regarding the party's
infrastructure at the district and subdistrict levels.

Some critics have said that PAN chairman Amien Rais seems to
have abandoned PAN's programs. Do you agree with this?

I certainly don't think so. This party, as I see it, is still
consistent in the sense that PAN is reformist. And Amien, as the
locomotive of the reform movement, is still consistent. That we
may have made some tactical adjustments (to the party's program),
those aren't substantial changes at all. What is substantive is
that PAN is a reformist party that is very much concerned with
the continuing struggle for a civil society.

If there are people who think that PAN should become an
opposition party and therefore stay away from the government,
that's just a matter of a difference of view. Giving support or
assistance to the legitimate government doesn't mean that we are
no longer critical.

We understand opposition as developing a critical attitude.
What we're doing now is giving support to the government and at
the same time developing our critical attitude as part of the
system of checks and balances. That's the meaning of opposition
which has developed around us. We don't recognize opposition like
that in Western countries or in parliamentary cabinets, in which
parliament can topple the government. The House of
Representatives here cannot topple the government.

Other critics say PAN tends to be sectarian, especially
regarding its role in forming the "axis force" and its attitude
toward the conflict in Ambon. How do you see this?

Expressing concern for the Muslim community is the same as
expressing concern for 80 percent of the country's total
population. It's wrong to say we are sectarian. We are still an
open party. The fact that most of our constituents are Muslim is
undeniable. It doesn't mean that PAN is an Islamic party. What we
did regarding the grassroots community (in Ambon) was
irregardless of their religion. It was more about our concern
toward the community, which happened to be majority Muslim.

So would you support maintaining the state ideology Pancasila
as the party's basic principle?

That's right. But I would like to underline the
characteristics of faith and devotion as universal traits. You
cannot claim such characteristics as sectarian. If you read the
education law, it is written that the goal of national education
is to create faithful and devoted citizens.

Retaining Pancasila with the additional traits of faith and
devotion in the party's principles means maintaining PAN as an
open party based on religious morality, humanity and justice. But
it's up to the congress to decide. (Sri Wahyuni)