PPP's about-face due to intolerable state

Among the political parties which appear to have changed their stances on the possibility of Megawati Soekarnoputri becoming president is the United Development Party (PPP). The Jakarta Post talked to party executive Chamsyah Bachtiar on the issue.

Question: How do you defend the new position adopted by your party? You spoke out against a Megawati presidency in 1999 because she was a woman and many people were unsure as to what her real religion was. Now you support her. Why?

Answer: Firstly, PPP adopted this stance after we realized that Abdurrahman Wahid's administration would never bring this country out of the crisis. Secondly, the President hasn't responded positively to earlier attempts by PPP (to persuade him to change his style), including through the memorandum of censure.

This is despite the multitude of problems facing our country. We are running out of time here.

We have this feeling of always being ignored by the President. For instance, he went abroad anyway despite the country finding itself in such a critical condition. My goodness, we'll have a very long list of complaints if we continue the conversation in this vein. I really will have to stop.

The PPP then thought about possible resolutions (and found that) many other parties including (Megawati's) Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), (Akbar Tandjung's) Golkar, (Amien Rais') National Mandate Party (PAN), the Justice Party (PK), Crescent Star Party (PBB), and maybe also the Ummat Sovereignty Party (PDU) have come to the conclusion that this situation (with the current presidency) was now intolerable. That's why there's such a great wish to end this presidency.

However, it is the position of PPP that this leadership crisis can be solved constitutionally, and I think it is the position of all the other political parties that Megawati step forward and become president.

Q: How do you explain this position to PPP constituents?

A: That's no problem now, because very early on we said that the situation was such that there was no longer any other alternative. (A Megawati presidency) is allowed under Islamic law (fiqh) so we won't be violating anything in that department.

Q: How much support would you give to Megawati?

A: I am stating here that we are ready to support her in accordance with the Constitution, and we want her to also be prepared to become the next president.

Q: How would you gauge her readiness?

A: Whatever people might say, we respect the results of the general election. PDI Perjuangan won the majority of votes in the 1999 election. If we are good democrats, we should respect this and not talk about our likes or dislikes any more.

Besides, after two years of being Vice President, she has shown us that we can learn many things from her. For instance, it's true that Megawati's silence is golden.

When everybody else is running around and making a lot of noise, she remains calm. She observes, and I believe she is also a firm person. She has displayed this during the infighting in her party involving Arifin Panigoro. We can understand how difficult it is to solve an internal squabble, but she managed to find her own position. That's good.

Then, the massacre in Sampit. She flew there immediately and also to other regions affected by natural disasters. So, I believe that the right course to take today is the constitutional one of having Megawati (as president), no one else. I believe PPP, PAN, PBB will also support this.

Q: How much longer do you think Gus Dur will hold out?

A: We don't need to wait until the three-month period is up before issuing the second memorandum. A critique of the government's poor performance can be made at any time. So whether the second memorandum will be issued -- regardless of whether the three-month period is up or not -- will depend on (Gus Dur). Who can stand it if he continues to flout everything? This nation could face destruction.

I would like to make it clear here that the main consideration (for an assessment of poor performance) depends not on the ministers but the President himself. So it doesn't matter how often he decides to reshuffle his cabinet.

Q: You support Megawati now, but who is to say that you won't try to remove her once she is in office?

A: No, no, no. I am sure of this. We have already learned a bitter lesson in government. (Herry Nurdi)