PDI legislators end bickering over boycott

PDI legislators end bickering over boycott

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) legislators who boycotted a hearing with Minister of Information Harmoko last week agreed yesterday to end their polemic with Deputy House Speaker Soerjadi.

The four legislators, Marcel Beding, Sabam Sirait, Sophan Sophiaan and B.N. Marbun, met behind closed doors with Soerjadi, a former PDI chairman.

Legislator Taufik Kiemas, who also boycotted the hearing between House of Representatives Commission I and Minister of Information Harmoko on Tuesday, was absent at yesterday's meeting.

Soerjadi had criticized their decision to stay away from the hearing with Harmoko, who is also chairman of the ruling Golkar party.

"We discussed the problem openly and agreed to end the polemic after we reached an understanding," Soerjadi told reporters after the meeting.

The House members were infuriated by Soerjadi's statement in newspapers which charged them with having "stepped over the party line" and called on them to resign.

The House members cited different excuses for staying away. Sophan and Marbun said they were bored with Harmoko always "singing the same the old tunes" at every hearing. Sabam said he was preoccupied with family matters and Marcel said he had a "more important commitment".

Taufik said he was ill.

Soerjadi said he and the legislators agreed to forget the dispute and continue with PDI's agenda of democratization.

Sabam and Sophan declined to elaborate on what they discussed with Soerjadi, simply describing the encounter as "frank and relaxed".

Sabam said Soerjadi withdrew his threat to take punitive actions against the boycotters.

"We all realized that there was no fundamental difference among us. We have the same goal which is democracy," Sabam said. (pan)