PDI's troubles in East Java continue
PDI's troubles in East Java continue
JAKARTA (JP): First, chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri was barred from addressing a gathering, and now the East Java chapter of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) is banned from holding a gathering to appoint its leaders. The minority party's troubles with the authorities continue in East Java.
The East Java provincial authorities yesterday warned that any meeting the party holds in Surabaya today to install Sutjipto as the chairman of its East Java chapter would be considered illegal.
The head of the East Java Socio-Political Office, Soeryadi Setiawan, was in Jakarta yesterday to consult with the Ministry of Home Affairs on matters concerning an announcement that the PDI is planning to hold an inauguration ceremony in Surabaya today, Antara reported.
After the meeting, Soeryadi said the inauguration could not proceed because Sutjipto's election was unconstitutional.
He said no application had been received from PDI to hold the gathering, but the East Java provincial government would not issue one even if an application was forwarded.
Soeryadi stressed that as far as the government was concerned, the leadership of PDI in East Java is still in the hands of Latief Pudjosakti because the provincial congress duly reelected him.
A letter issued by PDI's Central Executive Board to override the election result was unconstitutional, he added.
Latief has opposed the leadership of Megawati since her appointment to the top PDI post in 1992. Megawati's attempt to unseat him, however, has failed as Latief apparently has the support of local authorities.
Meanwhile, the National Police yesterday defended the decision by their precinct in Kediri, East Java, to bar Megawati from addressing a PDI gathering last month, "for security reasons."
"The local police reported that the condition was too risky to allow the gathering to proceed because many people from out of town were also coming," Brig. Gen. I Ketut Ratta, the chief spokesman of the National Police, said yesterday. "The organizers never informed the police that people from out of town were coming too," Ratta told reporters.
Given the still intense conflict within PDI in East Java, the Kediri police decided that allowing the gathering to go ahead could pose a security risk, he said.
Ratta firmly denied the suggestion that there was a concerted effort to obstruct Megawati from addressing her supporters in Kediri. "It was simply a matter of a permit. That's all."
He defended the decision by the Kediri police chief to ask Megawati not to address the gathering. "It was not an over- reaction on his part."
Megawati is currently in Mecca to perform the haj pilgrimage.
Meanwhile, Megawati's staunchest opponent, Yusuf Merukh, on Monday installed the leadership of the local "rival" chapter in Yogyakarta in another campaign to undermine her leadership.
Yusuf, who has formed his own executive board and named himself its chairman, has been courting senior PDI leaders in Yogyakarta, including 65-year old T.A.S. Sumitro, who was appointed as chapter chairman.
The ceremony to install Sumitro was quietly switched to Aquila Hotel in Yogyakarta from Wisma Kaliurang because some 50 police officers had been guarding the Kaliurang site, ready to break up the meeting that had no permit.
"Yogyakarta is the heart of PDI," Yusuf proclaimed, underlining that the constituency is one of the party's main support bases. "And we've made a breakthrough here."
Sumitro himself said he no longer recognized the leadership of Megawati because, under her, the party had been infiltrated by former members of the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party. (emb/02)