PKB will welcome former PAN figures

PKB will welcome former PAN figures

JAKARTA (JP): The National Awakening Party (PKB) is ready to
welcome political figures who recently quit the National Mandate
Party's executive board, said a PKB executive.

"The PKB, as an inclusive and cross-religious party, will be
willing to welcome them if former PAN figures want to join the
party," Effendi Choirie, chief of the PKB's autonomy affairs
section, said here on Monday.

"They have high integrity and a moral commitment to national
interests that match our party's political platform," he added.

Effendi admitted that the PKB executive board had already
discussed the desire of several former PAN figures to join the
party.

So far, there has been no reaction from the 16 former PAN
functionaries who submitted their resignation over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Hatta Radjasa, PAN's secretary general, said that
neither the party nor its other functionaries could prevent the
16 from quitting the party and from joining other political
parties.

But, Hatta stressed that the exodus had nothing to do with
controversy over PAN's political platform because it had been
decided at the party's national congress last year in Yogyakarta.

"During the congress, we decided to maintain the party's
inclusiveness and openness for all religions and ethnicities. I
don't think that the 16 are disappointed with the party's
platform and their exit has nothing to do with any internal
conflicts in the party," he said.

During the congress there was a major debate over whether PAN
would lean towards becoming more Islamist.

Hatta, also chairman of the reform faction in the House of
Representatives, added that he did not expect the resignations to
affect the party's potential vote in the 2004 general election.

He said the 16 who quit were only a small part of the 350
qualified cadres on the executive board and that the party,
therefore, still had numerous cadres ready to fill their
positions in the party. (rms)