PPP proposes more seats for scholars

JAKARTA (JP): The Moslem-oriented United Development Party (PPP) wants more scholars to represent it in the House of Representatives next year.

Party chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum said yesterday he was trying to include "as many as scholars possible" in the party's list of candidates for the House of Representatives.

Like Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party, which will contest next year's election, the PPP has been listing the candidates it will propose to the government.

"We are still waiting for input from party branches," he told reporters at the PPP's headquarters in Central Jakarta.

All three political organizations are required to submit their preliminary lists of legislators to the Indonesian Elections Committee by Sept. 17, 1996.

Ismail said that a number of Moslem scholars have been mentioned in the party's preliminary meetings, including the vocal legislator Ahmad Muflih Saefuddin and Matori Abdul Djalil.

Asked about the growing criticism of Matori's performance, Ismail said that Matori was a "good PPP legislator."

Ismail, however, declined to comment on the PPP leader in the House of Representatives', Hamzah Haz, proposal to ban Matori from speaking publicly outside the House.

"You should raise that question with the PPP faction," he said.

Matori, known to be an arch rival of Ismail, was one of the "July 1 statement" signatories who expressed concern over rising political violence and the repression of democracy.

The petitioners called on the government and the public to uphold the law and return to the national ideology laid down by Indonesia's founding fathers.

Ismail also denied reports that the PPP would put the controversial politician Sri Bintang Pamungkas on its preliminary list, saying that Bintang's name has never been raised.

Bintang quit the PPP a few days before he declared the establishment of his own political party, the Indonesian Democratic Union Party, on May 29.

Bintang was removed from the House in May last year after the party decided his harsh criticism of the government and the military were too much of a liability. (imn)