Soerjadi gets final seal of approval
Soerjadi gets final seal of approval
JAKARTA (JP): After one month of waiting, Soerjadi was
received by President Soeharto yesterday to get the official seal
of approval for his election as chairman of the Indonesian
Democratic Party (PDI) at a controversial congress in Medan.
"The government recognizes the PDI congress. The congress is
the party's supreme assembly and all PDI members must abide by
its results," Soerjadi quoted the President as saying.
This means the government regards the executive board elected
in Medan last month as the legitimate leaders of the party,
Soerjadi said.
When the request for the meeting was conveyed immediately
after the Medan congress, Soeharto had told Soerjadi to carry out
consolidation within the party first.
Soerjadi said yesterday the fact that the President accepted
to meet him meant that he had carried out the consolidation.
Soerjadi's leadership of the minority party had been
challenged by Megawati Soekarnoputri, who was officially the PDI
chairperson until the Medan congress. Many PDI leaders in the
region have also refused to recognize his leadership. Thousands
of Megawati supporters have occupied the PDI headquarters in
Jakarta to prevent Soerjadi and his board from moving in.
Soerjadi was accompanied by 10 fellow executives, including
Secretary-General Butu Hutapea and deputy chairperson Fatimah
Ahmad during the meeting with Soeharto at Bina Graha.
The President urged Soerjadi to continue with the
consolidation efforts. He said if some problems remained, they
should be settled at the next PDI congress in 1998.
Soeharto, Soerjadi said, stressed that the internal PDI
dispute should not affect the greater national task of holding
the general elections in 1997.
Soerjadi did not say whether a reconciliation with Megawati
was also necessary as part of the consolidation efforts.
The President stressed that PDI must be able to ensure harmony
in spite of differences among its members. He branded those who
refused to live in harmony as "being outside the system".
Soeharto also noted that some anti-government forces have been
trying to take advantage of the PDI conflicts for their own
political goals. This, Soerjadi said, reminded the President of
the method used by the Indonesian Communist Party of mobilizing
forces before they launched their rebellions.
"The PDI members must remain vigilant to these forces, or
'bald evils'," Soeharto was quoted as saying.
Separately, a senior U.S. State Department official confirmed
yesterday that she had met with Megawati and received an update
on the party's situation.
"We just had a very useful meeting in which she described to
me her perspective of the situation here," Under Secretary of
State Joan Spero said of the Wednesday meeting.
Spero was in Jakarta as part of Secretary of State Warren
Christopher's entourage to the dialog meetings with member states
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
"It really was sort of a factual exchange and very useful.
Nothing more than that," she said.
Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said that
the U.S. delegates' concern should not be considered as
intervention in domestic affairs.
"(They should) just go ahead if they want to," he said after
closing the two-day Post Ministerial Conference yesterday.
"It isn't interfering. We are an open society. We're not
worried about it," he added.
Some local politicians and scholars have criticized Megawati
for turning to the U.S., including her meeting last week with
American civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Meanwhile, Mangara Siahaan, a PDI executive loyal to Megawati,
told reporters that Soerjadi's meeting with Soeharto did not
automatically mean he was the legitimate leader.
"The legitimacy of a political party's leader is not
determined by the President, but by its members," Mangara said.
(imn/mds)
Press -- Page 2