---------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe?, send your mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body mail: "signoff indonews" need more help?, send your mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body mail: "info refcard" ---------------------------------------------------------- Indonesian ruling party members form breakaway party JAKARTA, Dec 15 (AFP) - Scores of leading members of Indonesia's ruling Golkar party said Tuesday they would launch a breakaway party. Retired General Edi Sudrajat, a former defence minister who lost the battle for Golkar's chairmanship in July, announced the intention to form the Justice and Unity Party. "This is a completely new party whose members are individuals concerned with the nation's unity and cohesion, the state ideology and the goals of the independence movement," Sudrajat told a press conference. The new committee comprised several Golkar members whose seats in parliament were withdrawn by the party earlier this year. "We want to end Golkar's career as a political machine," said committee member Bambang Warih Kusuma, refering to the decades when Golkar was the political vehicle of fallen president Suharto. Kusuma rejected public criticism that the new party was merely a "disgruntled" version of Golkar, saying it was a result of democratisation which had been witheld from the Indonesian people for decades. Kusuma said "certain people" were using democracy as a tool to justify arbitrary acts. "So I think Akbar Tanjung supporters are trained to be undemocratic. Whatever you do, they will never be democratic," Kusuma said, referring to State Secretary Akbar Tanjung who defeated Sudrajat to take the Golkar chairmanship in July. "After winning democratically, the new Golkar board on the other hand pulled out (parliamentary) members with a different opinion to theirs," he added. Kusuma was one of several Golkar MPs who were pulled out from the legislature before their terms had expired. Among the members of the committee preparing the new party are former transmigration minister Siswono Yudohusodo, former youth and sports minister Hayono Isman and Meutia Hatta. Her father Mohammad Hatta, along with the country's first president Sukarno, proclaimed the Indonesian republic in 1945. Sudrajat said the party would target winning only five percent of the vote in the next general elections, the first since the fall of Suharto, scheduled for June 7. He did not predict how many members the new breakaway party would be able to woo away from Golkar, but said it would also welcome members from outside the party. More than 100 political parties have sprung up following Suharto's fall in May, but it is unclear how many will qualify to run in the polls as parliament is still drawing up new laws on them. pyp/bs/sm ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 16 Dec 1998 jam 03:01:04 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
