The PDI puzzle

The PDI puzzle

It cannot be denied that the internal conflicts plaguing the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) have worsened with the recent
controversy surrounding the party's secretary-general, Alex
Litaay. His four-day disappearance happened at the same time that
party rebel Jusuf Merukh claimed that the secretary-general had
defected to his camp. Jusuf, as may be known, has set up a self-
styled leadership for the party, which has been notorious for its
latent internal squabbles since its birth in 1973.

When Alex emerged on Sunday, he claimed he had been abducted
by rebel party activists and forced to sign a statement that he
had joined the rival camp. He refused to elaborate.

Worse still, no PDI leaders have come forward to shed any
light on Alex's mysterious disappearance. And this has led the
public to guess about what really happened and how it could be
that our politicians have come to resort to criminal acts in
their efforts to achieve political gains.

In 1991, several PDI activists were involved in the kidnapping
and beating of two professed activists of the party. The 20
attackers were said to have wielded knives, machetes and sickles
to enforce their actions.

It seems that as crisis rolls on within the PDI, the quality
of too many of the party's leaders is radically declining. The
seniors among them have demonstrated their lack of respect for
democratic values, while the younger ones are impatient. Some of
them have set up self-styled leadership boards both in Jakarta
and in the provinces.

It appears that the alleged kidnapping of the secretary-
general will remain a mystery for some time to come -- or perhaps
forever -- because the police say they cannot investigate until
party leaders file a complaint. And there is no indication yet
that anyone in the party is about to satisfy the public's
curiosity about the matter.

PDI leaders may believe that they can gain political benefits
by leaving it the situation clouded in mystery, while deputy
chairman Aberson Marle Sihaloho accuses the government and Armed
Forces of engineering the internal problems hitting his party as
part of efforts to ensure an absolute majority for Golkar in the
1997 general election. Of course, this charge has been denied by
the authorities.

PDI's inaction on the so-called kidnapping has reinforced the
air of mystery which surrounds the party. On one side of the
issue is the government, which vows to never intervene into a
party's internal affairs -- which includes the problem of the
emergence of rival party leaderships, set up by rebellious
politicians. But it remains a mystery as to how these rebels have
always managed to get police permits to hold their meetings,
something which in some cases has been quite difficult to
accomplish for Megawati Soekarnoputri, the party's chairwoman.

This apparent double standard and the immaturity of the party
activists concerned have added to the hurdles which the PDI has
to confront in its effort to make itself a viable check-and-
balance power in our political system.

Any political entity, however small its faction in the House
of Representatives, deserves the freedom to develop without
outside intervention. However small, each political group has an
important role to play in the preservation of this country's
political stability.