Sudomo criticizes people jumping ship
JAKARTA (JP): People who abandoned the rift-ridden Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) for the United Development Party (PPP) are "spineless," Golkar cadre Sudomo said yesterday.
"They're spineless. They wouldn't have jumped ship had they really believed in their choice," said Sudomo, also chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council and a close aide to President Soeharto.
"But then, it's usual in politics for people to bargain," he told reporters after meeting Soeharto here yesterday.
He was commenting on the increasing number of PDI supporters who had switched their allegiance to the PPP. Some observers have said this exodus may threaten the dominant Golkar, which has been in power since 1971.
But many people are reported to have switched parties, especially to Golkar, in recent years.
People claiming to be PPP and PDI supporters changed their allegiances to Golkar last Friday before crowds at nine Golkar rallies in Serang regency, West Java. Two of the new Golkar supporters were given yellow party vests before the crowd at one at the rallies.
On Sunday in Sorong, Irian Jaya, the PPP local chapter deputy chairman, Bachtiar Dg. Nassa, resigned from his party to join Golkar. "All of the results of development that we have been enjoying are the fruits of Golkar's labors," he said in a statement.
"I am doing this out of my own conscience, not because I was pressured," he was quoted by Antara as saying. No Golkar officials have criticized people for switching their loyalties to Golkar.
In a town in North Sumatra on Sunday, dozens of people went to a PPP office to pledge their support for the party.
More recently, groups disillusioned by the PDI's protracted split have begun toting banners and wearing T-shirts with slogans, which suggest that an unlikely alliance between the Christian-nationalist PDI and the Moslem-based PPP is emerging. A popular slogan is "Mega-Bintang Jaya".
Mega is a nickname for Megawati Soekarnoputri, the ousted PDI chief, bintang or star is the symbol of the PPP and jaya means victorious.
The PPP has been enjoying the exodus of PDI supporters to its ranks so much that its chairman, Ismail Hasan Metareum, has dared to predict the party will win more votes in Jakarta at the May 29 election.
The government moved yesterday to curb the exodus by banning expressions of the Megawati-PPP alliance at rallies, even though PPP executives have been reluctant to recognize the alliance.
PPP Secretary-general Tosari Widjaya said last Friday there was no written agreement on an alliance between Megawati and Ismail Hasan Metareum.
"This (the exodus of PDI supporters to PPP) is legitimate in an election campaign, which serves to politically educate all Indonesians," Tosari was quoted by Antara as saying.
A PPP East Java chapter official, Sahar L. Hasan, said: "It (the exodus) is not something that people should fear."
Competition
H. Mappa Nasrun of Hasanuddin University in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, said Friday that Golkar and PPP could benefit from the many disillusioned PDI supporters.
"They can compete to woo the undecided," he said.
The chairman of the government-recognized PDI faction, Soerjadi, down-played the exodus: "No one is forbidden from leaving the PDI. Likewise, if there are supporters of the other contestants who wish to join the PDI, they would be welcome."
Golkar functionary Siswono Yudohusodo said recently that changing allegiances should not be blown out of proportion and that the PPP and PDI were not Golkar's enemies.
"Which is why, during this election campaign, there shouldn't be any brawls between supporters," he said. (swe)