PAN's pre-congress session starts

YOGYAKARTA: Some 3,000 National Mandate Party (PAN) supporters attended a post-Idul Fitri celebration on Wednesday night, marking the opening of a preliminary meeting of the party's first congress to be held here next month.

In his address, the party's chairman, Amien Rais, criticized President Abdurrahman Wahid's government for its inappropriate and unwise handling of the year-long sectarian conflict in Maluku.

"The government cannot let the people solve the conflict themselves. By the time it ends, the Maluku people will have vanished," Amien said.

Amien, who is also the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, furthermore said that threats of disintegration and conflicts fueled by religious and ethnic differences topped the list of problems the nation had to deal with.

The party congress will be held from Feb. 10 to Feb. 13 and is to be attended by some 850 cadres nationwide. They will elect a new chairman and debate PAN's nonsectarian basis, following growing allegations that the party has shifted to a sectarian one. (swa/edt)