PPP opts to wait and see on presidential candidate
JAKARTA (JP): Despite prolonged debate, the United Development Party (PPP) failed to agree yesterday on its presidential candidate and deferred the job of announcing the name to chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum.
Ismail told a press conference he would announce the party's nominee "at the right time". He refused to elaborate, except to say that the presidential election for the 1998/2003 period could take place only next March.
The decision not to unveil the presidential and vice presidential candidates was unanimously endorsed by party executives attending a leadership meeting which ended late Monday night, according to Ismail.
"There were various opinions during the meeting, but finally party executives gave me the mandate not to announce our presidential candidate," Ismail said.
The meeting was extended a full day until Monday, but even that was not enough for party leaders to break the deadlock.
Ismail dismissed yesterday speculations that lingering doubts about the health of red-hot favorite President Soeharto was behind PPP's excuse to wait for the right time to announce its presidential candidate.
"We all have seen that President Soeharto is healthy. He received a number of cabinet ministers while taking a rest," Ismail said.
A team of presidential doctors advised 76-year-old Soeharto on Dec. 5 to have a 10-day rest. It was not clear if the rest included holidays.
Support has been growing for Soeharto to take his seventh five-year term. The dominant Golkar is the only political group to have officially nominated Soeharto.
The 1,000-strong People's Consultative Assembly will convene here from March 1 to March 11 to elect a president and a vice president. The election of a president usually takes place on March 10, while the vice presidential election is held the day after the Assembly's consultation with the elected president.
PPP deputy chairman Jusuf Syakir said the party's decision was a compromise of three options suggested during the meeting.
He said a provincial branch insisted on nominating popular government critic and chairman of Muhammadiyah Moslem organization Amien Rais for the presidency, six others urged the party to support incumbent Soeharto and the remaining 20 deferred the decision to Ismail.
"We are trying to avoid a split in the party," said Jusuf, who also leads the PPP faction in the Assembly.
The Moslem-based party also confirmed its support for its representatives in the Assembly who are presently deliberating the draft 1998/2003 State Policy Guidelines.
"We ask our representatives to continue their struggle to relay the party's aspirations on general election rules, political reform, exclusion of nondenominational faith from religious development, and human rights protection," PPP secretary-general Tosari Wijaya read the party's statement.
Commenting on the monetary crisis, PPP urged the government to accelerate its anticorruption and anticollusion campaign, ease liquidity and cut interest rates.
The party also urged the government to introduce a law to encourage cooperation between big and small scale businesses, control private loans and ask Indonesians with overseas savings to withdraw their funds for domestic investment. (amd)