PDI Perjuangan holds meeting to size up its poll showing

PDI Perjuangan holds meeting to size up its poll showing

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan) is holding a three-day meeting to evaluate its
performance in the June 7 general election and October's General
Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Deputy chairman of the party's research and development center
Jacob Tobing told The Jakarta Post that the meeting was held to
appraise the party's strengths and weaknesses during the two
major political events, as well as to identify further
opportunities open to them in the 2004 general election.

"A weakness that the party has at present is that it only has
a small number of national-caliber politicians," he said.

He admitted it was a major factor in PDI Perjuangan's poor
performance in the presidential election despite the strong
showing during the general election.

"We found that the party wasn't ready to face the
(presidential) election and this can be attributed to the low
quality of PDI Perjuangan's legislators in the House of
Representatives and provincial and regional legislatures," he
said.

Jacob said the meeting was also aimed at making preparations
for the party's congress scheduled for March.

Asked to comment on the party's leadership in the future, he
said the congress would probably not reelect Megawati
Soekarnoputri to another next three-year period because she would
still be in her tenure as vice president.

PDI Perjuangan won more than 31 percent of the total vote in
the elections and gained 158 seats in the House. However,
Megawati, who was the front-runner for the presidency, was
defeated by Abdurrahman Wahid in the presidential election.

Megawati, who officially opened the meeting on Friday night,
asked the party's officials and cadres not to be complacent about
their achievements in the past and instead work harder for
greater gains in the next presidential election.

She also called on the party to intensify its training program
for new cadres and consolidate their ranks in facing the next
election. (rms)