Three political groups face internal dissent

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)