PPP hit by internal rift over election schedule
Abu Hanifah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The United Development Party (PPP) announced on Sunday that it would assign Husni Thamrin, one of the party's central board members, to attend a meeting being held by renegade members of the party's branch offices in Yogyakarta on Monday.
"As Husni Thamrin is the only executive invited to the meeting, we will let him go. He is expected to gather inputs from the meeting for us," PPP's central board chairman Zein Badjeber said after a hasty meeting at PPP headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta.
Sunday's meeting at PPP headquarters was attended by 16 of the 27 executives on the central board. PPP chairman Hamzah Haz, who is also the Vice President, failed to show up.
Zein denied speculation that Husni had been assigned to meet with the renegade members, saying that such talks were not on the agenda.
"This is not an ishlah (reconciliation) meeting. It is just a regular PPP chapters' meeting," Zein told The Jakarta Post.
A renegade faction in PPP, which is not satisfied with the way the party is being led, threatened in the Central Java city of Surakarta last week to establish a splinter party called "PPP reformasi".
The faction, which claimed to be supported by 13 PPP chapters throughout the country, demanded that the PPP central board revoke its decision to hold the chairmanship election after the 2004 general election.
The central board should accelerate the chairmanship election to 2002 to provide young cadres in the party with a greater chance of replacing the older, existing executives, according to the faction.
They feared that, if the election was conducted after the 2004 general election, older officials would exploit the situation to hold on to their posts.
They warned that if the central board failed to respond to their invitation to attend the chapters' meeting in Yogyakarta on Monday, they would go ahead with their threat.
They have even produced a party symbol and flag that resemble the PPP's. Its spokesman, Zainal Mu'arif, said that PPP Reformasi would be led by Zainuddin M.Z., a PPP executive of the NU faction.
An analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Indria Samego, said that the threat should not be taken too seriously.
"It's just being conducted by a small faction in the party that is not satisfied with the party's policy," Indria said, adding it was a genuine movement in the party that was demanding changes in the party's organization.
Dja'far Badjeber, chairman of the PPP's Jakarta chapter, who supports the defiant faction in the PPP, said that besides violating the party's agreement, the chairmanship election schedule was also likely to stifle regeneration in the PPP.
"The decision to hold the chairmanship election in 2004 violates the agreement that had been reached at last years's meeting... Besides, there would be no regeneration in the party if the congress were convened in 2004," Dja'far said.
Dja'far said the demand to replace old figures in the party had to be met since there would be tighter competition among political parties in the future.
"The party needs the power of the young cadres and to renew its management to compete in the future political constellation," Dja'far said.