PPP afraid of boots

JAKARTA (JP): Why did the United Development Party (PPP) eventually accept President Soeharto's leadership accountability speech before the final debate scheduled for Monday?

Journalists posed this question to M. Buang, one of the Party's most senior and outspoken legislators yesterday, only to find that the politician did not live up to his name.

"It (accepting the President's speech) is a better option than having to bear the weight of their boots," he whispered, shaking with laughter.

"What boots?" a reporter asked.

Buang stooped and touched his right shoe, saying "they're no ordinary boots. You know they're the ones which are strong and heavy," he grinned and left, stopping only to look back and smile when a vocal reporter asked if he was insinuating that his party had been pressured by the powerful Armed Forces faction in the People's Consultative Assembly. (pan)