Soeharto rejects cult figure image

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto told the nation yesterday not to turn him into a cult figure because it was against religious teachings, a minister said yesterday.

The President said he could lead the nation because people trusted him as their head of state and were grateful of his service to the country over the past five years.

Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher said that Soeharto also used to stress to his six children that their father's power as the head of state was not unlimited.

"Cultism will only encourage a person to sin," Tarmizi quoted Soeharto as saying during their meeting at Merdeka Palace yesterday.

Tarmizi declined to reveal why Soeharto decided to warn the people against turning him into a cult figure.

He also refused to comment on whether Golkar's plan to renominate Soeharto for the 1998/2003 period had triggered the President's comment.

"I don't know anything about it, but it is Pak Harto's right as our father to remind us not to turn him into a cult figure," Tarmizi said.

Tarmizi said that Soeharto had refused a local government's request to name a bridge in Kalimantan after him.

When asked why Soeharto agreed to have a mosque -- to be built by Indonesian Moslems in Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina -- called the Mohammad Soeharto Mosque, the minister said: "It is an Islamic tradition... his visit to Bosnia some years ago motivated the Bosnian soldiers... it is not a cult".

Soeharto will deliver a speech here Sunday marking Golkar's anniversary. Some people hope the President will use the occasion to reveal whether he is willing to be renominated for the seventh term. (prb)