Makassar – Former president Megawati Soekarnoputri challenged critics Saturday to prove accusations that the political party she leads, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), had been infiltrated by communists.

"If it's true the PDI-P has been infiltrated by communists, then it is the security authorities who should be blamed for negligence," she said while addressing a meeting of party members.

Megawati said that until some solid evidence was presented, she would ignore the allegations and instead concentrate on winning the 2009 general election.

Political foes of the PDI-P, the second largest party after Golkar, have made much of the presence in its leadership of Ribka Tjiptaning, the daughter of a banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) activist, and Budiman Sujatmiko, a former member of the People's Democratic Party, which was banned by the Soeharto regime in 1997 on suspicion of being a "reincarnation" of the PKI.