SOKSI tight-lipped on VP candidates
JAKARTA (JP): A Golkar-affiliated organization will hold a leadership meeting to discuss vice presidential candidates but will only declare its nomination in February.
Suhardiman, the chairman of SOKSI, the labor wing of the dominant Golkar, said here yesterday his organization is taking into consideration President Soeharto's health and the possibility he will step down halfway through his next term.
Suhardiman was speaking under the presumption that Soeharto will be reelected to his seventh five-year term for 1998/2003.
He said that his organization had absorbed the aspirations of many of its members across the country.
Suhardiman, who is also deputy chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council which recommends solutions for state and political matters to the President, said while SOKSI had named Soeharto as its sole candidate for the 1998/2003 presidency, the organization had six names for vice presidency.
He mentioned incumbent Try Sutrisno, House Speaker Harmoko, State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie, Minister of Information R. Hartono and two other cabinet ministers, whose initials begin with "H".
He declined to mention the two cabinet ministers, but there are four remaining cabinet ministers whose names begin with H. They are Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade Hartarto, Minister of Population/Chairman of the National Family Planning Board (BKKBN) Haryono Suyono, Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto and State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Hayono Isman.
Suhardiman said the organization is now busy establishing criteria for the vice presidency, which would be used to screen those candidates.
Speculating on the chance for Army Chief of Staff Gen. Wiranto to grab the country's second top position, Suhardiman said the four-star general still had much time.
"Gen. Wiranto is still young and he is an active military official," he said. "Besides, there has not been any indication that he will have an early retirement from his military service."
Several youth and student organizations, including the Association of Indonesian Law Students' Councils, have included Wiranto in their list of candidates for vice presidency.
Wiranto, 50, became the Army Chief last June, replacing Hartono who was appointed the minister of information. Hartono replaced Harmoko, who was installed as the new House Speaker in October.
Wiranto is now chairing the second ad hoc committee of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which discusses the mechanism for the presidential and vice presidential election next year.
Political observer Afan Gaffar of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University said yesterday there was no guarantee that the next vice president would come from names that had been circulating widely.
"People may announce a thousand candidates. But there is no guarantee that any one of them will be elected as the next vice president," he said.
"President Soeharto, who will likely be reelected next year, is the dominant factor in the vice presidential election."
Political observer Soehardjo S.S. of the Semarang-based Diponegoro University, however, supported nomination of many names for the vice presidency. (imn/amd/har)