A Dipta Anindita/Hendra & GB, Jakarta – The Socialist Democratic Faction (FDS) of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) led by Budiman Sudjatmiko has formally separated from the PRD after a long-running difference of opinion. FDS members have established a new struggle organisation named the Socialist Democratic Association (PDS).

Hendri Kuok and other PDS activists held a press conference at the Indonesian Family Planning Association hall (PKBI) on Jl Hang Jebat, Jakarta, Tuesday, to announce the split. Kuok was the PRD's former international representative in Australia, the PRD's representative in the General Election Commission (KPU) and Coordinator of internal and foreign political affairs division of the FDS.

He said the separation was caused by existing internal conflicts in the PRD's organisations which developed into fundamental and irreconcilable differences. "It's a matter of democracy versus bureaucratisation. We have 11 different points of contention between the FDS and PRD's Central Leaders," he told journalists.

The People's Democratic Party (PRD) was formed through student activist networks in 1996 in Yogyakarta, Central Java. At the time, the PRD was the only organisation brave enough to declare itself a political party in direct breach of the law which recognised only three political parties tightly controlled by the New Order regime of former president Suharto. It incorporated many "leftist" students and established workers', peasants', students' and artists' groups.

The PRD made national and international headlines in July 1996 after they were blamed by the Suharto regime for the riots which erupted in Jakarta after the security forces raided the offices the Indonesian Democratic Party. Many of the party's top leaders, including Budiman Sudjatmiko, were thereafter imprisoned for subversion. They contested the June 1999 elections but did not obtain a seat in the House or Assembly.

With the rapid political changes seen since Suharto's fall in May 1998, largely precipitated by the actions of more "radical" student groups, the PRD has struggled to find a new identity. The split has evidently come in response to the changing times and its effect on the party.

Furthermore, Hendri also said that there was no position of Chairman in the new Socialist Democratic Association (PDS) but rather it would be directly led by the secretary. Secretary of the PDS, Coen Husain Pontoh, said that they had agreed to make the PDS into a political party someday.

"However, at present our organisation has yet to possess the prerequisites for establishing a new party. We will start with the Socialist Democratic Association (PDS) and look for input and suggestions on how the wider people's movement can be more democratic. The issue of becoming a party or not will be discussed in our congress in six months," Coen said in response to journalists' questions.

The aforementioned 11 points of differences between the FDS and PRD were presented to the assembled journalists in a press release:

1. The bureaucratic decision making system of the PRD.
2. The democratic centralism of the PRD has developed to become a centralism that is both unhealthy and bureaucratic.
3. The development of the party as approved at the PRD's Second Congress in 1998 and the Extraordinary Congress of 1999 was not implemented as agreed.
4. The PRD's attitude to the current regime of Gus Dur [President Abdurrahman Wahid] is no longer in keeping with the PRD's vision as an opposition party.
5. The Party's newspaper was not made the central priority activity of the party.
6. The PRD did not make the organisation of labourers its priority work, but prioritorised the power of the urban poor.
7. The PRD's political activities tended towards sectarianism resulting in their isolation from the power of other radical masses.
8. There was no theoretical clarity, so the PRD could not respond politically with a comprehensive and united perspective.
9. The PRD displayed chauvinism in looking at the problems of nationhood in Indonesia, such as resistance of the people's of West Papua and Aceh, as categorised as regional turbulence rather than a problem of nationhood.
10. Opportunism in solidarity between the people's of the world was always directed towards the internal struggle [in Indonesia] while neglecting efforts to support solidarity for oppressed people in other countries.
11. The women's struggle was placed as a non-priority.