Sofjan to gather businessmen to help parties

JAKARTA (JP): A group of top businesspeople have abandoned Golkar and are studying the possibility of financially backing some of the country's newly emerging political parties.

Noted businessman Sofjan Wanandi said yesterday he would no longer help Golkar as he had under former president Soeharto's New Order regime. Instead, he said he would gather fellow businesspeople next month to determine which of the newly established political parties they would support.

The chairman of the Gemala business group said yesterday that at least 20 "still robust" businesspeople had agreed to the plan to provide financial support to political parties.

Among the names that Sofjan mentioned were former chairman of the country's biggest oil and gas company Medco Energi Corporation Arifin Panigoro, South Sulawesi businessman Jusuf Kalla, PT Astra International commissioner Teddy Rahmat, Raja Garuda Mas Group owner Sukanto Tanoto and Jan Darmadi of the Jan Darmadi Corp.

"Essentially, they are from companies which are still strong enough to help ... not from bankrupt companies," he said on the sidelines of a seminar at the Centre for Strategy and International Studies (CSIS).

He said the Soeharto regime had forced businesspeople to donate money to social foundations, which were suspected of funneling funds to Golkar. One such organization was the Dakab Foundation, set up in 1985.

"Up to 90 percent of Dakab's money was from businesspeople," he said of the foundation chaired by Soeharto. The foundation has total assets worth Rp 836.2 billion (US$65 million).

Golkar's political opponents and government critics have alleged that foundation funds had been unfairly used to support Golkar's political activities.

"Now, the business community must be careful in supporting political forces. Only parties with clear pro-people platforms deserve to be supported," he said.

Sofjan said the planned meeting would determine a strategy on how the group would go about supporting their chosen political parties.

The group should make people, not government officials, the main barometer of their political agenda, he said.

"So now if we are asked to help Golkar...we'll have to see first if the party has taken the people's interest into account in their main agenda," he said.

Golkar's new chairman, Akbar Tandjung, and Sofjan are both of the '66 Generation of student leaders who helped topple Indonesia's first president Sukarno and helped Soeharto ascend to power in the 1960s.

Sofjan also said that if the business community helped political parties, it must be done as transparently as possible.

"If we support political parties, we want to do it openly so that the media can report the successes and failures of the scheme," he said.

"They (political parties) must come up with real programs so that the business community can really help," Sofjan added.

Sofjan is the spokesman for a group of businesspeople called the Jimbaran Group, whose mission is to fight for certain social causes. The group, for instance, pledged in 1995 to donate a portion of its profits to help develop small businesses.

During the course of its existence, the group has offered support in the fields of human resources, capital, market access and information.

Elections

During the discussion sponsored by CSIS, political scientist Riswandha Imawan of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University suggested that existing political parties needed to merge.

"Sixty political parties are too many to be effective in achieving the ideals of the reform movement ... (They should) merge into four or five, or else there may not be any elections at all (next year)," he said.

Riswandha argued Golkar would win "with its money". He speculated that Golkar could easily buy off votes even without campaigning.

A few free packages of rice from Golkar could easily win the party support since many people were suffering from the prolonged crisis, he said.

Riswandha's remarks were countered by political scientist Rizal Mallarangeng, also of Gadjah Mada University, who said the former's view was "anti-democratic".

Rizal argued that the number of political parties was not the problem.

Observers should, instead, focus their attention on the new political laws soon to be introduced by the government, since they were "the rules of the game", he said.

"They are the very starting point of the institutionalization of reform," Rizal said.

Separately, Akbar Tandjung said in Bandung yesterday that Golkar was ready to ally itself with other parties with a similar platform in order to survive the next general election.

He also acknowledged that Golkar would need to change some of its political style in order to win back the people's confidence in it.

"Our political life in the future will be very diverse with the emergence of so many new parties, some of which are believed to be able to win people's support. So Golkar must take them into account," he was quoted by Antara as saying. (aan/swe)