PKB's political mission in legislature may resume
JAKARTA (JP): The National Awakening Party (PKB) will likely reinstate its faction in the House of Representatives and the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), while insisting it will not accept the recent Assembly Special Session.
"Although the party has decided to return to the legislature, that does not mean that it has accepted the results of the Special Session," Yusuf Muhammad, deputy chairman of the party's advisory council, said in a media conference at the opening ceremony of the meeting here on Monday.
He strongly criticized statements that said that with its plan to revive its faction in the legislature, PKB had implicitly accepted the results of the Special Session, including the impeachment of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, who is also the chairman of the party's advisory council.
"Whether or not PKB will resume its political mission in the legislature will be decided in the ongoing party's national meeting. It will not depend on other parties or factions, but on its supporters who elected their representatives in the last general election," he asserted.
Amien Rais, speaker of the MPR, reiterated on Monday that PKB had implicitly accepted the recent Special Session and its results if it decided to revive its faction in the legislature.
PKB has temporarily dissolved its faction in the parliament and supported the former president's decree to declare a state of emergency and to dissolve the MPR, the House of Representatives and the Golkar Party. It has also dismissed Matori Abdul Djalil as party chairman and suspended the party membership of Matori and Abdul Khalik Achmad for the time being for supporting the Special Session.
Ali Masjkur Musa, who accompanied Yusuf in the media conference, concurred, while saying that the House would not be complete without the existence of his party in the legislature.
Ali said that the 57-member faction of PKB was part of the 500-member House's configuration.
"But its existence both in the House and the Assembly depends not on other parties and the two institutions' decisions. The two institutions have no authority to disband our faction. The hastened Special Session and the presidential decree are two political realities that have their own supporters," he said.
He called on the political elite, especially House Speaker Akbar Tandjung and Amien, to be more circumspect in making comments on PKB's political stance and its internal friction because they were outside the party.
"What Akbar and Amien said about PKB was not decided by the institutions they are representing. Those are their personal opinions," he said.
Ali was named on Monday night as chairman of the party's faction at the House.
Asked to comment on Abdurrahman's recent statement that he was still the constitutionally elected president, Yusuf said NU clerics participating in the party's meeting would give their stance on the recent Special Session and Abdurrahman's impeachment.
"But, the party's meeting will not discuss the new government under President Megawati Soekarnoputri. Our main concern is how to channel the people's aspirations and protect them from arbitrary arrest and repressive action that has begun to rise to surface," he said.
He cited that the party's meeting had three main agenda items -- to identify PKB's political mission in the future, to reorganize the party and its faction in the legislature and to formulate the role of clerics in politics.
In the opening ceremony, Alwi Shihab, PKB's acting chairman, criticized the political elite and the recent Special Session for having exploited the people for their own political interests.
"The political elite in the legislature has justified the Special Session in the name of the whole people but, in fact, they have exploited the people to fight only for power," he said, adding that PKB's next programs would be oriented to the people's real interests. (rms)