PKB's political mission in legislature may resume

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)