PDI gathering attended by police

PDI gathering attended by police

BLITAR, East Java: Last Friday's informal get-together of the leaders of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) proceeded tensely after police sought to revoke the meeting's permit.

Police moved in on the meeting after they noticed that the number of people attending the gathering was considerably higher than that proposed by the committee when it applied for the permit.

The police were also surprised by the presence of PDI chief Megawati Soekarnoputri, who had not appeared in the list of invitees previously provided to the police by the committee.

Chief of the PDI's Blitar branch, Paino, said it was "a great honor" for him, as a host, to have Megawati present and that the number of guests was a lot higher than expected.

"How can I turn away my boss (Megawati)? Would it make sense to evict the uninvited guests; those not among the 200 I invited?" he asked, as quoted by the Surya daily.

The committee ignored the police's demands that it hand over the permit document and discontinue the gathering. The meeting went ahead without incident, although the police remained present throughout. (pan)