Presidential nomination a trap for Megawati: Analyst
Presidential nomination a trap for Megawati: Analyst
SEMARANG (JP): Proposals to nominate Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) chief Megawati Soekarnoputri may actually be part of a conspiracy to plunge her into a deeper conflict with the government, an observer said yesterday.
Riswandha Imawan said the proposals may provoke the government into meddling more in the PDI's internal affairs, to undermine the smallest of Indonesia's three political organizations.
"The proposals may have been designed by PDI members and people from other organizations to trap her," said the staff lecturer in political sciences of the Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.
The maneuver to enter the eldest daughter of former president Sukarno in the 1998 presidential race has received a strong push from three senior PDI politicians, Marwan Adam, SGB Tampubolon and Aberson Marle Sihaloho this week.
Officials of the rift-ridden party claim that the initiative comes from PDI members in a personal capacity.
Riswandha said if the PDI activists are serious about nominating Megawati, they should have kept their intention to themselves until the right time.
"That way, they would have won greater sympathy for Megawati," he said.
Other observers have said that the plan is a courageous maneuver to set up an election with more than one presidential candidate in 1998. Over the past three decades, President Soeharto has ran unchallenged in every election.
Chief of the Yogyakarta chapter of PDI Suharto and that of the Semarang municipality Suwito came out in support of Riswandha's opinion.
"The proposed nomination may trap Megawati. I don't know who had the original idea," Suharto said.
Added Suwito, "Those who openly support her nomination by signing an open statement are setting a booby trap for her."
Both Suharto and Suwito said that the forms to be filled in by supporters of her candidacy are not circulating in their areas of jurisdiction.
The latest major issue to undermine Megawati's two-year-old leadership is East Java Governor Basofi Soedirman's exclusion of the PDI from the local electoral committee.
Although Basofi's tactics have met with strong criticism from PDI officials and the public alike, political observers said the move could hurt the party's standing in the 1997 election in East Java, traditionally one of its strongest bases.
The PDI is denied representation on the committee on the grounds that the leadership of its East Java chapter has not been settled, with two men, Sutjipto and Latief Pudjosakti, claiming the position.
Political observer Afan Gaffar of the Gadjah Mada University said yesterday that both Basofi and Megawati are gambling.
Basofi intentionally lets the conflict drag on in the hope that it will eventually destroy the PDI, he said. "Basofi is well aware that in the past election, the PDI polled an enormous vote in the province."
On the other hand, he argued, Megawati is sticking to her guns, insisting that her appointment of Sutjipto is legal.
"She won't compromise. She wants to win public sympathy by showing that the government is oppressing her party. With that image, she hopes to win sympathy from more of the younger voters," Afan said.
He suggested that Megawati compromise by electing a new chapter chairman who is neutral, and able to bridge the gap between the PDI and the government.
Afan argued that such compromise would not adversely affect Megawati's credibility as long as she can justify herself to party supporters.
Rejecting Latief is risky because he has strong supporters in East Java, and, moreover, he has the backing of the government, Afan said.
"If Latief is rejected, he still has the potential to persuade the local masses to boycott the PDI in the forthcoming election," he said. (har/pan)