Three political groups face internal dissent
JAKARTA (JP): The three recognized political groupings -- Golkar, the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) -- which have monopolized the political scene for over 25 years, are facing growing internal dissent which is boiling over into public rows.
Demonstrations and public statements of discontent plagued the three major political groups yesterday.
The PPP headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta, was besieged by 300 party members yesterday.
They demanded party leaders hold an extraordinary congress to elect a new chairman to replace the incumbent Ismail Hasan Metareum, no later than June 30. The congress is currently scheduled for August 1999.
The PPP Reform Committee, as they called themselves, asked Ismail to step down and accused him of manipulating the party into supporting the renomination of Soeharto for president in March.
Emron Pangkapi, spokesman for the committee, said that Ismail had manipulated the decision not to support Soeharto reached by 20 out of 27 provincial councils across the nation during the PPP leadership meeting in January.
"This manipulative and collusive political act caused the nation to fall into a crisis of confidence and has hampered the process of smooth and peaceful reform," he said.
Emron said that he and his committee would continue to "occupy" the headquarters until their demands were met.
Next door, 200 members of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) calling themselves the Committee of Megawati Supporters (KPM) staged a separate rally in front of the PDI office.
The protesters demanded that Panangian Siregar, a PDI legislator loyal to Soerjadi, resign from his new position as State Minister of Environment because of his involvement in the notorious July 27 incident.
They also demanded that Coordinating Minister for Defense and Security Feisal Tanjung and Minister of Home Affairs Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid step down for their alleged involvement in the same incident.
Followers of the government backed Soerjadi faction forcibly took over the PDI headquarters on July 27, 1996, which was at the time occupied by supporters loyal to the ousted chairman Megawati Soekarnoputri.
The protesters, lead by Ribka Tjiptaning from the Tangerang PDI office, later marched to the nearby Legal Aid Foundation office to hold a press conference.
Meanwhile, in the grounds of the Ministry of Home Affairs, a group of students staged a demonstration demanding the dissolution of the ruling Golkar grouping and reform of the other two authorized parties.
The ministry oversees the activities of the three recognized political groupings.
Thirty fully-armed soldiers watched the demonstration closely but did not intervene.
Sundani Abadi of the group calling themselves the Student Action Front for the Purification of Reform said: "The people now no longer trust Golkar. I believe it is logical to say that Golkar, who have been in power, should take responsibility for bringing the nation into the current crisis." (ivy/aan)