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Anti-Moslem smear against Megawati

Source
Agence France Presse - June 7, 1999

Jakarta – Supporters of popular Indonesian opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri are up in arms over a weekend smear campaign painting her as anti-Moslem, newspapers said Monday.

The campaign was waged in the form of leaflets, some anonymous and others by Moslem groups. They urged "good Moslems" to spurn her Indonesian Democracy Party-Struggle (PDIP).

They were distributed in Jakarta and other major cities on Saturday and Sunday when campaigning was banned.

The Indonesian Observer quoted a lawyer for Megawati, whose campaign rallies have drawn hundreds of thousands, as saying the party was considering taking legal action.

"The pamphlets have discredited our party so we will report the matter to police headquarters," Didi Supriyanto said.

Some 90 percent of Indonesia's 202 million people are Moslems as is Megawati, the daughter of the country's first president Sukarno. But her grandfather was a Hindu.

Even before the weekend, the campaign to tar Megawati as an unsuitable candidate for the presidency had gathered momentum. The Indonesian Council of Ulemas, the country's highest Moslem body, called on voters to chose only what it called Moslem parties.

The two other largest opposition parties – the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the National Mandate Party (PAN) – have both sprung to her defence.

PAN leader, reformist academic Amien Rais, decried the Council's call as an attempt to split the reformist vote and allow the ruling Golkar party of former president Suharto to retain its grip on politics.

PKB leader and Moslem moderate Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, leader of the country's largest Moslem organization the Nadhlatul Ulama, said the Council had no right to meddle in politics.

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