Senior PDI Perjuangan members doubt party's chance of winning 2004 election

Senior PDI Perjuangan members doubt party's chance of winning 2004 election

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With public criticism mounting and defections in the country's ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), senior party members have warned that the party might face a sharp slide in support in the 2004 general election.

Wavering public support and internal cracks are undermining the party's chances of winning the election again, they warned.

"I believe during the upcoming election many supporters at the grassroots level will abandon the party," said long-time PDI Perjuangan member Mochtar Buchori on Wednesday.

"Look at Bali, East and Central Java, they used to be PDI Perjuangan strongholds, but not anymore."

Mochtar doubted the party could secure a 34 percent share of votes as it did in the 1999 election. He said he heard pessimists estimating 15 percent while others estimate 22 percent.

As PDI Perjuangan chairwoman President Megawati Soekarnoputri enters her second year in power, protests against her and the party are mounting.

Charges rest on Megawati's political interests taking center stage at the expense of political, legal and economic reforms.

Corruption has become endemic and Megawati's government is seen as caring little about it. Earlier this month she ordered her party to block a probe into graft allegations against House Speaker Akbar Tandjung.

Neither Megawati nor her party felt it necessary to explain the move other than that they believed in the justice system.

Last year her party showed no qualms about investigating then President Abdurrahman Wahid over similar charges -- moves that eventually led to Megawati securing the presidency.

Now PDI Perjuangan supporters feel betrayed after Megawati told her party to back Sutiyoso for another five-year term as Jakarta's Governor.

Many suspect Sutiyoso masterminded the bloody attack against PDI headquarters in 1996, when he was the Jakarta military commander. Members of her party have openly rejected Sutiyoso's nomination in defiance of her instruction.

"She let down the people with her interference in the Buloggate case and her support for Sutiyoso," said Mochtar, referring to Akbar's case.

Critics have also charged that Megawati maintains too close a relationship with the military, another slap in the face for the 1998 reform movement.

Unlike Abdurrahman Wahid's administration, they said the current one was treating the military as a political force instead an institution it must regulate.

"Megawati once said she was against militarism," said Aberson Marle Sihaloho, another senior PDI Perjuangan member.

But if she continues to care more for her political interests rather than the public's, people will not vote for her again, he said.

He warned that PDI Perjuangan may face extinction given its poor performance in heeding the aspirations of the common people.

Already a number of leading members have defected from the party, some of whom have founded new parties with which they hope to woo other disenchanted PDI Perjuangan members.

PDI Perjuangan member Abdul Madjid added that cracks had appeared within the party because of talks to amend the 1945 Constitution. He said the party was divided over whether or not to continue with the current amendment process.

"The disagreements are deep and concern members' principles ... when it comes to emotional issues it is hard to seek common ground," Abdul said.

According to him, the internal dispute could damage the party's unity and places Megawati in a dilemma. "She cannot please both sides, one will eventually feel left behind by Megawati," he said.

Another senior party member, Pataniari Siahaan said, however, that public support was still high and that media reports showing the opposite were misleading.