PDI Perjuangan indecisive on Akbar corruption case

PDI Perjuangan indecisive on Akbar corruption case

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia's largest party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), has failed to take a final stance on
the Rp 40 billion graft case, which allegedly involves Akbar
Tandjung.

After a day-long meeting, party spokesman Pramono Anung
announced on Tuesday that PDI Perjuangan would allow its
legislators at the House of Representatives to take their own
stand.

"The party has yet to follow the day-to-day developments
before it takes its final stance," said Pramono, who is the
party's deputy secretary.

Akbar has been accused of diverting Rp 40 billion in
nonbudgetary funds from the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to
Golkar while he was the state secretary/Cabinet secretary in
1999. He is scheduled to appear at the Attorney General's Office
on Wednesday.

Separately, party deputy chairman Roy B. Janis said that
Akbar, who is also the Golkar Party chairman and House speaker,
had met PDI Perjuangan executives last week but they made no
political compromise concerning the scandal.

"We discussed other things. The only thing Akbar mentioned
about the Bulog fund scandal (which implicates Akbar) was that 50
House members had put forward a motion, demanding that a special
team investigate him," Roy said.

He said the political solution that the 50 legislators had
urged was necessary as the legal solution alone would not satisfy
the public.

"The public's trust in the judiciary is so low that we are
afraid the result would disappoint them. So the investigation by
a House special committee is necessary," he said.

In the West Java city of Cirebon, hundreds of students and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) took to the streets on
Tuesday, demanding that Akbar resign from his positions in the
House and Golkar while he is under investigation.

The protesters, grouped in the Students' Alliance for Justice,
marched to the Cirebon legislative council, where they read out
their demands.

They also demanded that Golkar be dissolved for allegedly
accepting the Bulog funds, while former president Soeharto and
his cronies be brought to trial for corruption.

"Dissolution of Golkar is a prerequisite for political
reforms. The Bulog scandal has only showed us that Akbar is not
qualified to lead the House," the coordinator of the protesters,
Egi Bachrudin, said.

Former president Abdurrahman Wahid, who was implicated in
another Bulog fund scandal, said that an investigation by the
House team would put Akbar in a difficult position.

"It would be a dilemma for Akbar. If a House special team is
set up, it would 'kill' him and if a court of justice finds him
guilty of funneling Bulog money to Golkar, the party would be
finished," he said in the Central Java city of Purwokerto.

Abdurrahman's party, the National Awakening Party (PKB),
initiated the establishment of a House special committee to
investigate Akbar.