Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Deposed president Soeharto, accused of massive corruption and cronyism during his 32-year rule of Indonesia, yesterday attacked the ruling Golkar party he created, saying it has been ruined by vested interests.
Referring to leaders of the party preparing to contest the country's first free elections since 1955, Mr Soeharto said "they have left the state and national interests behind" and were without vision or programs. "The result is chaos," he said.
In an interview likely to fuel fears that radical groups loyal to the former president are provoking religious and communal strife ahead of the poll, Mr Soeharto also called for a stronger role for the armed forces, refused to rule out again taking power and criticised the release from jail last month of alleged communist military officers jailed after a 1965 coup which resulted in him becoming president.
Analysts said the comments, published in a weekly newspaper called Siar, will increase tensions in Golkar as it prepares to nominate Dr B.J.Habibie, who replaced Mr Soeharto amid bloodshed last May, as its priority candidate for president at the June elections.
Golkar sources also made clear yesterday that the armed forces commander, General Wiranto, would be nominated as Dr Habibie's vice-presidential running mate when the new parliament meets with regional and other appointees to choose a new national leadership.
The nominations, passed at a closed-door Golkar meeting earlier this week but still awaiting formal approval, are a blow to anti-Soeharto members pushing for the nomination of the reformist party chairman, Mr Marzuki Darusman, and the Sultan of Yogyakarta, the scion of Indonesia's grandest royal family.
The stigma of association with Mr Soeharto's now discredited rule has prompted the defection of many of Golkar's leading figures, including former vice president, retired General Try Sutrisno. The Minister of Co-operatives, Mr Adi Sasono, is facing the sack after apparently courting a new party.
The Minister for Information, Mr Yunus Yosfiah, warned this week that Indonesia's problems would increase unless the Government stopped practices that became rampant during Mr Soeharto's rule, including preferential treatment for military officers and other people close to the Soeharto family.
Mr Soeharto, 78, who lives as a recluse in a heavily guarded house in Jakarta, said the armed forces were now "cornered" and did not have the confidence to do anything – an apparent reference to the violence in provinces including East Timor, Aceh, West Kalimantan and Ambon.
"In the end they think if they do something they will be blamed but if they don't do anything they will be blamed too," he was quoted as saying. Mr Soeharto called for the military to become stronger. "The government of Indonesia needs a stronger [military] because it has to maintain stability and carry out development," he said.
Dr Habibie promised last night he would do all he could to prevent the Balkanisation of Indonesia: "I don't want to be remembered as the leader who let this country disintegrate."