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)