Support pours in for Soeharto

Support pours in for Soeharto

JAKARTA (JP): Support poured in yesterday for a Golkar senior
member's proposal that the ruling political organization formally
name, as soon as possible, incumbent President Soeharto as its
candidate for the presidential election next year.

Golkar chairman Harmoko, Armed Forces Chief of Sociopolitical
Affairs Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid and chief of the Supreme Advisory
Council Sudomo separately welcomed the proposal put forward on
Monday by Moestahid Astari, chief of the Golkar faction at the
House of Representatives.

The 1,000-strong People's Consultative Assembly will convene
in March to draw up the Broad Guidelines of State Policies and
elect a president and vice president.

Harmoko said the nomination could be made public, and that
Golkar statutes also allowed members to announce it.

"There is nothing wrong with Moestahid Astari's proposal...
the Golkar central board will formally disclose President
Soeharto's renomination in the next leadership meeting in
October," he said.

Both Syarwan and Sudomo agreed.

"It's not wrong for people to put forward their aspirations,"
Syarwan said after a swearing-in ceremony of three assistants to
the Armed Forces Chief of Sociopolitical Affairs at Armed Forces
Headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta yesterday.

"It's lawful," Sudomo told reporters in his office yesterday.

However, Sudomo said that Moestahid should have sought
President Soeharto's approval first before going public with his
proposal.

Both Syarwan and Sudomo dismissed speculation that Golkar's
maneuver was "engineered."

"The proposal was treated only as input for the Golkar central
board," Syarwan said.

Sudomo also dismissed speculation that it was Soeharto himself
behind the faction's proposal, pointing out that it was not like
the President to seek support for his renomination.

"It's the people who want him renominated," he said.

Harmoko dismissed a question whether Moestahid had overstepped
his boundary as faction chief by publicly stating his proposal.
He said what Moestahid did was common practice in Golkar.

He also denied speculation that Moestahid was reprimanded for
his bold announcement.

"The meeting with Moestahid was only a regular meeting," he
said of Moestahid's visit with him yesterday morning.

Separately, United Development Party (PPP) chairman Ismail
Hasan Metareum expressed reluctance to follow in Golkar's
footsteps in announcing its presidential nominee now, with seven
months left before the actual presidential election.

He said all of PPP's executives were currently too busy
drawing up its draft for the state guidelines to be submitted to
the People's Consultative Assembly for deliberation.

"Only after we finish the draft can we think about a
leadership meeting to select our candidates for the 1998/2003
presidential post," he said.

Ismail also declined to comment on whether some of the party's
cadres had suggested the re-election of incumbent President
Soeharto.

"I won't talk about presidential matters now, because up to
now I don't know who our candidate will be," he said.

Moestahid suggested on Monday that the Golkar executive board
heed the aspirations of its members and voters for the
renomination of President Soeharto.

Dozens of mass organizations and individuals, including
chairman of the 30-million strong Nahdlatul Ulama Moslem
organization, Abdurrahman Wahid, have said that President
Soeharto would retain power in next year's presidential election.

Golkar maintained its political supremacy for a sixth
consecutive term after it secured a landslide victory in the May
29 general election. The ruling political organization grabbed
325 seats of the 500-seat House of Representatives, leaving PPP a
distant second with 89 seats and the Indonesian Democratic Party
lagging even further behind with 11 seats. (imn/amd)