Joint secretariat not for uniformity: PKS

The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) welcomes the formation of a joint secretariat as a forum of discussion among members of the ruling coalition, but is against any misuse of the new institution to push for uniformity.

PKS leader Luthfi Hasan Ishak said on Sunday there was nothing special with the joint secretariat as it was only set up to enable coordination among the coalition partners to work. He added such a mechanism had been agreed upon when the coalition was built last year.

“The secretariat is part of efforts to help communication among coalition partners run effectively,” Luthfi said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com

He added that the new forum should not be intended to promote uniformity in opinions, vision and mission of coalition members, but to seek common understanding on national and fundamental policies, such as bureaucratic reform, good governance and clean government and banking and financial system reform.

 “In the era of democracy differences cannot be curtailed,” he said.

Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie was appointed the executive chairman of the joint secretariat.