SOKSI tight-lipped on VP candidates

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)