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.