Rights activist advises rival PDI leaders to reconcile
Rights activist advises rival PDI leaders to reconcile
SEMARANG (JP): The government's call for the rival camps in
the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) to reconcile their
differences found support from a human rights activist and a
member of the Supreme Advisory Council yesterday.
Rights campaigner Muladi and council member Harsudiono Hartas
said they believed the best way to end PDI's leadership crisis
would be for the opposing camps to talk and narrow their
differences.
The rift-ridden PDI leadership has been split into two. One
camp is loyal to the democratically elected chief, Megawati
Soekarnoputri. Her political foes, with the government's backing,
unseated her and elected Soerjadi as their chairman.
The government recognizes only Soerjadi, a former PDI chief
who was last reelected in 1993. He had been rejected by the
government at that time on the grounds that he had "legal and
political defects".
"Megawati and Soerjadi should reconcile and they should
concentrate on the upcoming general election," said Muladi, a
member of the National Commission on Human Rights.
He said that all PDI leaders should be aware that the party
should not be serving either Soerjadi's nor Megawati's interests,
but the party's as a whole.
Muladi, also known as an expert on criminal law at Diponegoro
University and a senior local executive of the ruling Golkar
party, said he was sure the conflict would hurt PDI's showing in
next year's election.
"PDI leaders should be wary of that disastrous consequence,"
he said.
Hartas suggested that communication is the key to the solution
of the long-standing bickering in the nationalist-Christian
alliance.
Hartas, a former chief of the powerful sociopolitical affairs
division of the Armed Forces, said he observed that rival PDI
members have lost the spirit of deliberation for consensus to end
the conflict.
Court action
On Megawati's plan to sue the government for supporting the
breakaway party members' rebel congress in Medan, North Sumatra,
Muladi said she has every right to do that.
Megawati intends to file the law suit with the State
Administrative Court against the minister of home affairs and the
National Police chief. Her move has received support from senior
pro-democracy lawyers, who offered to defend her free of charge.
"The (administrative) court is the right channel for the
public to solve any dispute with the state," Muladi said.
He said, however, that he would rather see leaders of the
minority party solve their internal problems without the
intervention of a third party. (har/pan)