Party official says PKB's main target will be Amien

JAKARTA (JP): The National Awakening Party (PKB) will return to the legislature with the principal mission of toppling People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais for his alleged role in unseating Abdurrahman Wahid from the presidency, a party figure says.

"The PKB's main target will be Amien and we will be seeking an appropriate time to call him to take account for the numerous transgressions he has committed. We want to see him step down or be replaced," PKB Secretary-General Muhaimin Iskandar said on the sidelines of a national meeting of the party here on Tuesday.

The PKB has identified 10 perceived violations by Amien in his capacity as the Speaker of the Assembly, Muhaimin said without elaborating.

He explained that the three major transgressions frequently engaged in by Amien were making regular political statements in the name of the Assembly; the statement he made following a meeting of party leaders prior to the special session that Indonesia would have a new national leader; and the requirement he was attempting to impose that the PKB accept the results of the special session before returning to the legislature.

Muhaimin said his party would not take revenge against the politicians, including Amien, who initiated the political conspiracy to topple Abdurrahman, "but we just want to serve warning on those who have exploited the people in order to gain power."

The PKB was expected to revive its faction in the legislature at the plenary session of the party's national meeting late on Tuesday as most of the participants, representing 29 regional chapters, and its executive board members had expressed their support for such a move.

Yusuf Muhammad, a member of the party's advisory council, said the national meeting was also expected to take a number of decisions having regard to the recent internal friction in the party and the revamp of the PKB faction both in the legislature and the Assembly.

"With regard to the party, we will decide whether we will hold a snap congress to resolve the problems in the party, including the planned election of new functionaries. The plenary session is also expected to appoint new functionaries of the PKB faction in the House and the Assembly," he said, citing that Abdurrahman, who chairs the party's powerful advisory council, had proposed to bring forward the congress to February next year instead of 2005.

Matori Abdul Djalil, who was elected as PKB chairman at the party's congress in Surabaya last year, has been dismissed from his post because of his support for the special session.

Yusuf dismissed Amien's recent demand that the PKB accept the outcome of the special session before reviving its faction in the legislature, saying neither the House nor the Assembly had the authority to force his party to accept the special session and its outcome.

"The presidential decree declaring a state of emergency, and dissolving the House and the Golkar Party was a political statement that actually had no legal implications for the legislative body or other political parties," he said. (rms)