PDI Perjuangan supports Gus Dur's government until 2004
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)