PDI Perjuangan supports Gus Dur's government until 2004

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) has dismissed calls for President Abdurrahman Wahid to step down, saying it will support the President until his term ends in 2004.

"PDI Perjuangan will not initiate a move to demand the President resigns. In facing such a difficult situation, it is not fair to blame all of the problems on the government," Pramono Anung, the secretary-general of PDI Perjuangan, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Pramono said the party's pledge to maintain its support of Abdurrahman was made during a weekly meeting of party executives presided over by chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is also the Vice President.

He said party executives at the meeting discussed the growing opposition to the President, the Bulog and Brunei financial scandals which have been linked to the President and an invitation by PDI Perjuangan legislator Kwik Kian Gie to join an informal meeting of the House of Representatives to discuss the major challenges facing the country.

Pramono said Megawati also urged party members, including its 153-strong faction in the House, to comply with the party's stance on supporting the President.

"PDI Perjuangan supports Gus Dur, not in his personal capacity but in his position as the legitimate President until 2004," Pramono said, referring to Abdurrahman by his nickname.

Numerous individuals and organizations, including People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais, have stepped up pressure on the President to resign, saying he has failed to lead the nation out of its prolonged crises.

Separately, PDI Perjuangan legislator Marle Aberson Sihaloho confirmed his faction had decided not to take the initiative in calling for the President's resignation.

"My faction, in its meeting last Friday, decided that it would not respond to the call unless all factions which supported Gus Dur in the 1999 presidential election apologized to the people for their choice.

"Those factions should make an apology for ignoring the winning party and Gus Dur's health during the presidential election," he said.

Amien, chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN), and the alliance of Muslim-based parties known as the Axis Force organized support for Abdurrahman in the presidential election against Megawati, whose party garnered the most votes in the general election.

Pramono also said that during the meeting, PDI Perjuangan legislators were urged to seek the truth behind the Bulog and Brunei financial scandals, which are being investigated by a House special committee.

In response to Kwik's invitation to take part in the informal meeting of the House, the party executives remained neutral, according to Pramono.

"The party did not support or reject it. Therefore, all members of the PDI Perjuangan faction in the House are free to accept the invitation or turn it down," he said.

Meanwhile, Abdurrahman's National Awakening Party (PKB) deplored demands for Gus Dur's resignation, saying the calls were emotional and irrational.

"Whoever, even an angel, leads the nation during such a difficult situation will not be able to defuse the crises successfully in a year," the chairman of the PKB faction in the House, Taufikurrahman Saleh, said during a media conference on Tuesday.

He said the move by certain parties in the House to seek evidence the President had violated the Constitution had only served to distort the House's function.

House Deputy Speaker Muhaimin Iskandar said his PKB faction believed Amien Rais and other politicians calling for the President's resignation were not serious in their demand.

"The calls and criticism of the government should be seen in the context of democracy," he said.

At the House compound, hundreds of activists from the Movement for Revolution rallied to demand the President's resignation.

Wearing blue headbands, the protesters, some of whom traveled from Banten for the rally, shouted "Gus Dur must step down" during the 30-minute protest.

The demonstrators said the President should immediately step down because he had broken the law, including appointing the new National Police chief without consulting with the House as required by a People's Consultative Assembly decree.

The demonstrators also lashed out at the President for alleged corruption, citing the high-profile Bulog and Brunei scandals, and his decision to delay the prosecution of three tycoons, Prajogo Pangestu, Sjamsul Nursalim and Marimutu Sinivasan, who owe billions of dollars to the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency.

Separately, some 150 protesters claiming to represent the Islamic Student Association in Ciputat, South Jakarta, rallied in front of the State Palace on Jl. Merdeka Utara in Central Jakarta, demanding the President immediately resolve the country's problems.

The protesters unfurled banners, two of which read: "Gus Dur betrays reform" and "Don't sleep, the economy is in ruins." (01/asa/rms)