PPP leadership warns of 'people power' group

JAKARTA (JP): United Development Party (PPP) leaders say there are groups seeking to use the Moslem-based party as a source of "people power" to force sociopolitical change.

PPP's deputy chairman, Hamzah Haz, said party executives drew this conclusion in a recent evaluation of the party's campaigns which were marred by sporadic clashes.

PPP has attracted huge numbers of people to its rallies across Java. Its supporters, reportedly fortified by large numbers of supporters of ousted Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) chief Megawati Soekarnoputri, were often embroiled in fighting with security officers and Golkar supporters.

Hamzah did not say who he believed wanted to turn the party into in vehicle for "people power".

"PPP will stick to the existing rules and won't become a people power party, much less spoil the general election," Hamzah was quoted by Antara as saying in Pancor, Mataram, West Lombok.

He said the party wanted reform but not through the upheaval brought about by the "people power" movement.

But PPP's chairman, Ismail Hasan Metareum said his party still stood for reform.

He said this in his nationwide speech broadcast by state-owned television channel TVRI and state-owned radio RRI

He said the public, especially young people, had enthusiastically participated in the party's campaigns because the party could accommodate their need for change.

"The change is to replace corruption, collusion and the abuse of power with honest, clean, moral people to forsake the practice of using all possible means to gain victory because of fear," he said.

The public also demanded the country's economic system, which is controlled by a few people, be replaced with a people-based economy, where the strength of the economy lay with the majority of the people, Ismail said.

Ismail said PPP would struggle for more equal development so Indonesia would have more than one economic center.

PPP would struggle to create democratic, just and dynamic political life, he said.

In what analysts saw as an effort to eliminate perceptions the party was exclusively for Moslems, Ismail said PPP would uphold freedom of religion for all citizens in accordance with the constitution.

Meanwhile, violence broke again yesterday afternoon at the Karebosi field in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, where PPP held its last round of campaigning in the province.

Witnesses said tens of thousands of PPP supporters were angry that PPP had to use a smaller stage and not the main stage which has always been used for campaigning.

The police did not allow the party to use the main stage because it had been decorated for today's Golkar campaign which will feature Golkar chairman Harmoko and dangdut star Rhoma Irama.

The crowds pelted police and buildings with stones, burned a car owned by the officers, and damaged traffic signs.

On Wednesday, PPP drew tens of thousands of people to its last round of campaigning at the Blang Asam field, Peusangan, Aceh, where Ismail spoke.

He said he hoped PPP could repeat its 1977 victory in the province. (jsk/30/37/31)