PDI leadership urged to support Soeharto in 1998

BOGOR, West Java (JP): The government-recognized leadership of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) has been urged by its members to support President Soeharto's renomination in 1998.

Provincial leaders said here yesterday that an increasing number of PDI members have urged the leadership to announce the party's support for Soeharto.

But PDI Chairman Soerjadi said the party would decide its preferred presidential candidate in a leadership meeting held prior to the People's Consultative Assembly general session set for March next year.

"It's accepted in our party that everybody is free to express their opinions. We will take this issue (Soeharto's renomination) into consideration later," Soerjadi said.

Soerjadi was responding to six provincial branches which suggested Monday, on the opening day of the party's two-day leadership meeting, that PDI name Soeharto as the only candidate for the 1998 to 2003 presidential term.

The assembly convenes in March 1998 to elect the president and vice president, and to endorse the State Policy Guidelines for 1998 to 2003.

Soeharto served as acting president in 1967, two years after he led the Army to quell a coup attempt blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party. The Provisional People's Consultative Assembly appointed him the republic's second president in place of Sukarno in 1968.

It will be Soeharto's seventh consecutive term in office if the assembly approves his nomination, making him one of the world's longest serving presidents.

Sacked legislator Sri Bintang Pamungkas, head of the unrecognized Indonesian Democratic Union Party, is the only person to have thus far announced a challenge to Soeharto.

In PDI campaigns prior to the 1992 general election Soerjadi was a persistent advocate of limiting a president's tenure in office to two terms. The 1945 Constitution only says that a president serves for five years and can be reelected.

But the Soerjadi-led PDI finally joined mounting support for Soeharto's renomination prior to the 1993 general assembly.

The six PDI branches were not the first people to support Soeharto's renomination. Last October, the Keluarga Besar Laskar former student activists organization led by Arief Rachman Hakim, the Indonesian Builders Association and the Federation of Employee Cooperatives voiced their support for Soeharto's renomination.

Also in October, the dominant political organization Golkar issued six criteria for the future president in a political statement delivered during its 32nd anniversary. Observers say Soeharto, who heads Golkar's board of patrons, fits all of them.

Representatives of the six PDI branches also urged the party's leaders to select a vice president from the Armed Forces.

They failed to persuade Soerjadi to accept their proposal as the party's recommendation at the conclusion of the leadership meeting which was scheduled to end last night.

"We have the proper forum to discuss presidential and vice presidential candidates. Who knows they (the branches) might change their minds," said Soerjadi.

The two-day leadership meeting served as the final stage of PDI's preparations for the May 29 general election.

In response to the party's decision not to rely on an electoral campaign as a means to gain support, the meeting named a 10-strong team led by the party's secretary-general Buttu Hutapea to find other ways to raise the PDI's vote.

On Monday Soerjadi said PDI had decided not to take the electoral campaign seriously due to the restrictive election rules. He said the election regulations would discourage democracy because of their numerous restrictions.

Soerjadi is expected to read the party's political manifesto today at the opening of a course for PDI's campaign speakers. (amd)