Desy Nurhayati and Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – Political parties have once again shown that allies and foes do not last forever if interest is at stake, as they continued discussions on coalitions for the presidential elections Wednesday.
Leaders of the National Mandate Party (PAN) held talks with both the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) on Wednesday, just a week after meeting with the Democratic Party chief patron President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
PAN chairman Sutrisno Bachir said his discussion with Golkar chief and Vice President Jusuf Kalla and PDI-P leader Megawati Soekarnoputri had nothing to do with forming a coalition for the presidential election.
Sutrisno said the talk focused more on a commitment for a fair legislative election and better government for the next five years.
The PAN-PDI-P summit resulted in a joint commitment to complete the nation's unfinished reform agenda and establish the strong system of government which has lacked since the fall of the New Order in 1998.
Megawati said now that 10 years of reform had past, the state still had not provided its people with adequate welfare, as was evident from the high rates of poverty and unemployment.
"The reforms would not bring any improvements to the nation if they could not enhance people's livelihood. Both PAN and the PDI-P aim to complete these unfinished reform agendas," she said.
Megawati was accompanied by PDI-P secretary general Pramono Anung, her husband Taufik Kiemas and daughter Puan Maharani. Last week, Sutrisno attended a meeting with Yudhoyono at his private residence in Cikeas.
Sutrisno denied speculation that PAN decided to hold meetings with the PDI-P and Golkar following a disappointing engagement with Yudhoyono.
Yudhoyono's Democratic Party had hinted at forming an alliance with the Prosperous Justice Party, National Awakening Party and PAN.
Earlier in the day, Sutrisno met with Kalla and other Golkar executives where the two parties agreed to boost small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and farming communities in the regions.
They also urged financial institutions to provide a greater number of loans to small industries.
"If the two of us win the mandate to form an administration, we would agree to put matters related with regional economic improvement at the top of our agenda. This is part of our commitment to strengthen the overall national condition," Golkar chairman Jusuf Kalla told a press conference Wednesday.
PAN Chairman Soetrisno Bachir, who also attended the press conference, said the two parties had agreed to work on the reform program as soon as deliberations were finished at the House of Representatives and the administration. "We will ensure the next state budget provides adequate funding for working programs involving SMEs and farming and fishing communities," he said.
Officials and party cadres who sit on the next administration would be assigned the task of supervising the implementation of the program.
Other party leaders at the conference included PAN economist Didik J Rachbini and Fahmi Idris and Paskah Suzetta from the Golkar Central Board.
Didik said in terms of implementing the program, improvements could come from fund donations aimed directly at building new businesses in each village.