PDI tries to win farmers' sympathy

PDI tries to win farmers' sympathy

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) tried to
win farmers' sympathy yesterday by promising them more political
representation and easy access to credit and training.

PDI deputy chairman Ismunandar said that, although an
estimated 38 million people, or 46 percent of the workforce,
worked in the agricultural sector, farmers were underprivileged.

He said development was cutting the size of their properties.

"About 52 percent of farming families, mostly in Java, own
less than half an hectare of land," Ismunandar said in a
televised discussion last night.

Indonesian farmers' education was lamentable, he said citing
the 1993 census which found 14 percent of them had never been to
school and 73 percent had only attended primary school.

Farmers were struggling to keep their heads above water
because their incomes remained low amid rising prices.

"What's more, the institutions that are supposed to represent
farmers' interests are too weak to defend them. Often, the
institutions hurt farmers' interests," he said.

The PDI promised to open up more agricultural areas on outer
islands to resettle farmers from densely populated islands like
Java, Bali, Madura and East Nusa Tenggara.

Earlier yesterday, at a rally in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi,
Ismunandar accused the government of neglecting small business
although government policy stressed economic development.

He said the PDI would make sure that eastern provinces were
developed properly to catch up with western provinces.

Meanwhile, the United Development Party (PPP) Jambi chapter
claimed that 300 Megawati Soekarnoputri supporters would vote for
the PPP on May 29.

PPP advisory council member Yusuf Husin said the party had
received a verbal guarantee from the deposed PDI leader's
supporters.

"We will ask them for a written statement to be read out to a
PPP meeting on May 21," Yusuf told Antara.

Megawati, replaced by Soerjadi in a rebel PDI congress last
year, has been barred from standing for election. She has told
her supporters not to campaign.

Many of her supporters, frustrated by being sidelined, have
publicly thrown their weight behind the PPP to challenge the
dominance of Golkar, which has been in power since 1971.

Agus Sunarto, chief of the PDI Jambi chapter, which is loyal
to Soerjadi, said yesterday he had not heard of any PDI
supporters shifting their allegiance to the Moslem-based PPP.

He said he believed that all local PDI members supported
Soerjadi.

The conflict-ridden PDI is planning another rally in Bandar
Lampung, southern Sumatra, despite Megawati loyalists' threats to
disrupt it.

PDI Bandar Lampung branch chairman Zainal Fanani said
yesterday he had not decided whether the rally would be indoors.

PDI campaigned for the first time in Bandar Lampung on
Wednesday. Its indoor rally was disrupted, as had been expected,
by Megawati supporters who were forcibly dispersed by police.
(01/pan)