PPP set to improve its performance in 1997 election

PPP set to improve its performance in 1997 election

JAKARTA (JP): The United Development Party (PPP) has drawn up
a five-year program designed to prove its critics wrong amid
predictions that it will be relegated to third and last place in
the next general election in 1997.

The party's program, which includes wide-ranging plans on
political, economic, educational and cultural reforms, was
adopted at the end of the party congress on Thursday night.

With Ismail Hasan Metareum still at the helm, party insiders
say the Moslem-based PPP is optimistic that its program will be
able to attract a wider spectrum of potential voters to jack up
its electoral gains.

The faction-ridden PPP makes consolidation and organizational
development top priority in the program, which lacks in details
on how it plans to compete with Golkar and the Indonesian
Democratic Party (PDI) in the 1997 election.

Also high on the agenda are the training of cadres, more
efficient use of party funds, research and development, and the
defense of the oppressed.

PPP has been under increasing pressure from its supporters to
do something to save itself from being relegated to being the
smallest of the three political organizations.

In the 1992 election, it obtained 17 percent of the votes. By
comparison, Golkar won 68 percent and PDI got almost 15 percent.
PPP obtained only one additional chair in the House of
Representatives (DPR) and PDI 16.

Alarm bells sounded for the PPP this year amid worsening
factional bickering in the PPP and after PDI elected Megawati
Soekarnoputri, the daughter of former president Sukarno, for its
helm spot, and Golkar named information minister Harmoko as its
chairman.

Harmoko, whose cabinet portfolio yields him control of the
country's mass media, is now toiling to make the government-
backed Golkar an even larger "single majority".

His remarks are widely interpreted to mean that Golkar is bent
on further widening its lead over the other two parties in 1997.

The 1997 general election is particularly important given that
Indonesia is expected to vote for its third president the
following year. President Soeharto, now 73 years old, has
indicated on several occasions that he would stand down after
1998.

PDI that has successfully identified itself as "the party of
the ordinary people" has been vigorously consolidating.

Criticism

Critics link PPP's poor performance in the last election to
Ismail Hasan's leadership style which they say overemphasizes
harmony with the government and wastes resources to suppress
internal disputes.

After Thursday's re-election, Ismail Hasan said he would
maintain his leadership style and make the party pro-active,
bringing it closer to the ordinary people.

The program document states that PPP is determined to defend
the poor who have to lose their property to make way for
development projects implemented in an "inhumane" manner.

In preparation for the upcoming election, PPP is set to train
cadres, intensify campaigns, introduce the party program to the
public and put internal conflicts to an end.

The PPP also plans to seek an end to what it calls the
government's domination in the future general election process.

At present, the general election is sponsored by the
government and the contesting political organizations believe
they are not fully involved in the whole process.

The PPP and minority PDI have repeatedly charged that the
government favors Golkar. Their demands for an overhaul of the
electoral procedures hit a wall when Golkar and the powerful
Armed Forces (ABRI) rejected the proposal.

The political organizations and ABRI, which does not vote in
the election but reserves 100 DPR seats, review the electoral
system every five years prior to the presidential election.

PPP means to try pressing the demand again when the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR) convenes prior to the forthcoming
presidential election scheduled for 1998. (pan)