PDI can't sue government over leadership rift
PDI can't sue government over leadership rift
SEMARANG (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) has no legal ground to settle its conflict with the government over the East Java leadership rift, an expert says.
Soehardjo, a professor of constitutional law at Diponegoro University here, said yesterday that should PDI decide to sue Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. and East Java Governor Basofi Soedirman over their handling of the rift, it would be rebuffed by the State Administrative Court.
"This is not a matter of administration, it's a constitutional question," he told The Jakarta Post. "And we don't have a constitutional court yet."
Soehardjo was referring to a recent suggestion made by a PDI legislator, Aberson Marle Sihaloho, that the party's executive board sue President Soeharto, Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. and East Java Governor Basofi Soedirman at the State Administrative Court.
The officials, Aberson had said, should be charged with disrespecting the PDI's internal rules on the pretext that the government is the "patron" of domestic political development.
The government has no right to dismiss a political organization's rules and declare them invalid, Aberson said.
The minority party and the government have been at odds after Basofi "rejected" PDI chief Megawati Soekarnoputri's appointment of Sutjipto as the party's East Java chapter chief in 1994 to replace outgoing Latief Pudjosakti.
The conflict has deepened after Basofi excluded the PDI from the East Java electoral committee because both Sutjipto and Latief claim they are the legitimate local party chief.
Soehardjo also contributed to the discussion about the government's role as the "patron" of political development.
He said that, according to the laws, the government does not have the right to become "the patron" of political parties or of Golkar.
Given this fact, no governor or regent would be in a position to deny permits for political parties to hold gatherings in "their" regions, he said.
The government can only monitor whether the parties -- PDI and the United Development Party (PPP) -- and Golkar act in line with the state ideology of Pancasila and whether they receive financial help from foreign countries.
"The government, therefore, does not have the right to intervene in the internal affairs of the East Java chapter of PDI," he said.
The home affairs minister and governors can only act as "patrons" for social organizations, he said.
The 1985 Law, he said, stipulates that PDI, PPP and Golkar are social-political organizations "whose sovereignty lies with their members".
The government can give suggestions, but solutions to internal wranglings should be left to the organizations in question, he said.
In Surabaya, the leadership conflicts in PDI East Java chapter reached a new stage with the circulation of a PDI decree containing the lineup of an alternative chapter leadership.
This board has as its chairman Marsoedi Fandinegara, who is currently deputy chairman on Sutjipto's board, and Latief Pudjosakti as deputy chairman.
The document was printed with the letterhead of the PDI central executive board, and bore the signatures of Megawati and deputy secretary general Haryanto Taslam. Dated Jan. 24, it was directed to the members of the PDI advisory council.
Out of the 21 names listed in the document, 13 are known to be Sutjipto's supporters; the remaining are those known to belong in Latief's camp.
The chief of the Brawijaya regional military command, Maj. Gen. Imam Utomo, said the document was created by people who had nothing better to do. (har/15/swe)