Party official says PKB's main target will be Amien

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)