TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Minister's statement criticized as govt intervention
Golkar Party deputy chairman Fadel Muhammad said a statement from Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno on the organizing of the upcoming Golkar national meeting was a form of government intervention in the party
Change Size
G
olkar Party deputy chairman Fadel Muhammad said a statement from Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno on the organizing of the upcoming Golkar national meeting was a form of government intervention in the party.
'The minister's statement is a political implication, namely a government intervention in the internal affairs of a political party, and this makes us uncomfortable,' Fadel said as quoted by Antara news agency at the People's Consultative Assembly/House of Representatives (MPR/DPR) compound in Jakarta on Wednesday.
His comments were in response to Tedjo's recent statement urging the National Police not to issue a permit for the party's planned national congress in Bali, which is scheduled to take place on Nov.30.
Fadel said the minister's statement also reflected the government's partial position on internal problems currently plaguing the party.
Moreover, he added, Tedjo's statement contradicted Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Albertus Julius Benny Mokalu, who had said that the island was prepared to host the meeting, and National Police chief Gen.Sutarman, who had issued a permit for the organizing of a Golkar national meeting in Bali.
'Most of our colleagues consider the minister's statement to be political because he is a member of the NasDem Party, which is in fact a splinter of Golkar,' said Fadel.
He urged the government not to intervene in party internal problems and to allow the party to play out its own procedures democratically.
'We urge the coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister to revoke his statement,' said Fadel.
'What has happened in Golkar is an internal conflict among cadres who are competing to be elected as party chairman. Hurt feelings are a normal consequence,' he went on.
In his statement on Tuesday, Tedjo said the government did not want to run the risk of damage to Bali's reputation as a safe destination for tourists should violent conflict flare up during a Golkar congress.
He added that one of the reasons that drove him to urge the police not to issue a permit for Golkar to hold their national congress was the fact that the scheduled date fell within Bali's tourism high season. (ebf)(+++)
