Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 03/22/2010 9:16 AM
PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri played down Taufik Kiemas’ bid to bring the party closer to the ruling coalition, saying he had no right to vote in the upcoming congress.
The statement was made Sunday in response to Taufik’s repeated calls for the party to join President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s government.
Megawati asserted that her husband Taufik, who is chief advisor to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), had no right to vote in deciding the party’s stance on coalition affairs.
“A member of the advisory is part of the party. They are senior members of the party and have the right to speak, but do not have the right to vote,” Megawati said Sunday at the opening of a regional conference for her party’s Jakarta chapter.
Taufik, who is also the speaker at the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), did not attend the
conference.
The PDI-P’s national congress, set for April 5 to 9 in Bali, is scheduled to elect the party’s next chairperson. Analysts say this will very likely go to Megawati again.
A member of the steering committee for the Bali congress, Ganjar Pranowo, said calls for the party to unite with the government were on the rise in the party.
“There is no ‘official’ agenda to discuss a coalition, but the congress may not prevent this from being discussed,” he said.
Ganjar said Megawati had ordered the steering committee to find ways to prevent the PDI-P from falling into the trap of political pragmatism.
He said he had received many text messages from party members calling for the PDI-P to ally with Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party to pave the way for it to win the 2014 election.
“But the bigger portion of the [text messages] wanted the PDI-P not to join government, to keep the party’s consistency,” he said.
Several PDI-P politicians have hinted an interest in joining the coalition.
The PDI-P chairman at the House of Representatives, Tjahjo Kumolo, has said there was a need for a revision of the current coalition.
The coalition issue resurfaced following the implication of several serving and former PDI-P legislators in a bribery case related to the election of Miranda S. Goeltom as Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor in 2004.
Veteran legislators Tjahjo Kumolo, Panda Nababan and Emir Moeis were among PDI-P stalwarts alleged to have received bribes in the case, for which other legislators are currently on trial.
Political expert Burhanuddin Muhtadi from the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) said it was likely the PDI-P would shift its position from the opposition to being part of government, to allow it to raise funds to prepare for the 2014 election.
