PDI-P acknowledges bargaining with Golkar

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) acknowledged trading concessions with Golkar Party to secure Akbar Tandjung's overwhelming win in the secret ballot for House speaker in the early hours of Wednesday.

The concessions, PDI Perjuangan executives said, were given in return for Golkar's support of their party chairwoman, Megawati Soekarnoputri, in the Oct. 20 presidential election.

"Of course, there was a tradeoff of concessions previously," PDI Perjuangan deputy chairman Dimyati Hartono said.

However, Akbar, whose Golkar party has 120 seats in the 500- member House of Representatives (DPR), denied such deals arranging quid pro quo.

Akbar won 411 votes while PDI Perjuangan's Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno collected only 54 in the ballot held after the Crescent Star Party refused to accept a backroom deal between the ten factions which tried to put Akbar at the post without a vote.

Sabam Sirait, another PDI Perjuangan deputy chairman, said Akbar met with Megawati on Tuesday and the latter then lobbied Muslim figure Abdurrahman Wahid, also known as Gus Dur, to garner support for Akbar.

"You know more than I do about the political concessions between the two major parties...," he said at a media conference on Wednesday.

Four deputy speakers who were elected to the House leadership are Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno of PDI Perjuangan, Khofifah Indar Parawansa of the National Awakening Party (PKB), A.M. Fatwa of the National Mandate Party (PAN) and Hamzah Haz of the United Development Party (PPP).

Separately, Akbar who was sworn in as the new House speaker on Wednesday, denied his party's bargaining with PDI Perjuangan, saying: "There was no bargaining."

When asked whether his party would in turn support PDI Perjuangan chairwoman Megawati in the upcoming presidential election, he said: "There was no such concession ... (President) B.J. Habibie is still Golkar's presidential candidate."

Akbar acknowledged approaching leaders of PDI Perjuangan and other major factions in the House to garner support for his election.

But Golkar deputy chairman Slamet Effendy Yusuf said there were "under-the-table political concessions" made hours before the ballot.

Slamet added though that intensive lobbying with party leaders other than PDI Perjuangan also contributed greatly to the sweeping majority of votes gained by Akbar.

"We will not make any political concession with other parties for such principal matters as the presidential election," he told reporters in reply to questions as to whether the repayment was Golkar's support for PDI Perjuangan's presidential candidate.

Another Golkar deputy chairman, Marzuki Darusman, revealed that PDI Perjuangan contributed some 120 votes to Akbar in the secret ballot.

"This support can be clearly interpreted as PDI Perjuangan's concession to win support from Golkar to secure victory in the presidential or vice presidential election," Marzuki told reporters.

Yusril Ihsa Mahendra, the chairman of the Crescent Star Party (PBB), regretted the alleged tradeoff of a concession between Golkar and PDI Perjuangan.

Yusril cited this suspected backroom deal was the main reason behind his party's steadfast insistence to have a secret ballot for House speaker.

"But please ask PDI Perjuangan or Golkar what kind of deals they struck," he said, arguing that his party opposed Akbar's unanimous appointment by most House members because it was not in line with democratic principles.

Meanwhile, Pratikno, a political observer at the Yogyakarta- based Gadjah Mada University, said that Golkar should support Megawati in the presidential election in return for PDI Perjuangan's support of Akbar.

"Since PDI Perjuangan has given a significant contribution to Akbar's victory, Golkar in turn should support Megawati in the presidential election," he said in Yogyakarta.

Pratikno added that PDI Perjuangan might have got such a concession from the Indonesian Military (TNI) in return for support of a vice presidential candidate from the military.

Dimyati expressed his optimism that Megawati would win the presidential election with the support from other factions.

"We have been intensifying our lobbies with other rival factions to canvas support for Megawati.

"It isn't necessary to disclose all the approaches we have been making both individually and institutionally," Dimyati added.

"PDI Perjuangan was defeated by several votes in the People's Consultative Assembly and the House because they were not our targets. Our main target is to win the presidency for Megawati, " he said.

Separately, the joint Reform faction, consisting of the National Mandate Party (PAN) and Justice Party (PK), reaffirmed on Wednesday its nomination of Gus Dur as its presidential candidate.

In a related development, hundreds of PDI Perjuangan supporters staged a demonstration at the Hotel Indonesia's traffic circle on Wednesday, demanding the MPR elect Megawati the new president. (byg/emf/rms/05/44)