PDI leadership urged to support Soeharto in 1998

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)