A'an Suryana and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – A team established to save Golkar is accusing certain leftist groups of trying to dissolve the party by exploiting corruption allegations against its chairman Akbar Tandjung, a suspect in a Rp 54.6 billion financial scandal involving the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).

"We consider Akbar to be their intermediate target only. Their ultimate goal is former president Soeharto, the Indonesian military and Golkar," team member Suhardiman said in Jakarta on Sunday. He refused, however, to name the groups, saying only that they were in the leftist-oriented camps.

Golkar, the main political bandwagon of former dictator Soeharto, has once again come under intense public scrutiny following the announcement by the Attorney General's Office that its chairman Akbar, who is also the speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR), had been charged as a suspect in a high profile financial scandal that took place when he was minister/state secretary during former president B.J. Habibie's short stint in 1999.

The Attorney General's Office has scheduled February 4 as the first day on which Akbar will be investigated as a suspect. A guilty verdict, if the case is ever brought to court at all, would inevitably lead to Golkar's dissolution as the funds were allegedly used by the party to finance its campaign in the 1999 general election.

To save it from being dissolved, Golkar has formed a "Party Salvation Council", whose main task is to distance the party from its chairman Akbar. The council, which was formed last Thursday during a meeting between the party's board of patrons and its central executive committee, is headed by former housing minister Cosmas Batubara, with members including Suhardiman, Arnold A. Baramuli, Muladi and Pinantun Hutasoit.

Suhardiman, who once earned himself the title of "political soothsayer", said on Sunday that the leftist groups had found fresh ammunition against Golkar, the second biggest faction in the House with 120 members, since the financial scam first surfaced in 2001.

Asked if the efforts to rescue Golkar included plans to remove Akbar from the party's chairmanship, Suhardiman emphasized that his "rescue team" did not deal with operational matters, such as the decision to hold an extraordinary congress. "We will only offer suggestions and advice. The decisions will depend on the executive board," he said.

Another team member, Muladi, said over the weekend that the rescue team was established to identify the potential dangers of Akbar's corruption case by launching its own investigation into the scandal. The investigation, he said, was aimed at finding out and clarifying whether or not the scam originally emanated from the party, or whether it was simply Akbar's personal responsibility.

"If the party is not involved in the scam, we must fight all out to clear our name. For Akbar, he would have his own corner to fight as it would be then his personal responsibility," said Muladi on Saturday. None of the Party Salvation Council's members are Akbar confidantes.

Muladi asserted that the scam should not be immediately linked to the Golkar Party, despite the fact that it involved party chairman Akbar. "To say that Golkar is involved in the scam, this is a difficult allegation to prove. Golkar has been audited by the National Election Commission (KPU), and it was also audited while we were involved in a legal battle with 11 other parties in the Supreme Court. Those two audits have proved that Golkar never used part of the Bulog funds," he said.

The 11 parties referred to demanded last year that Golkar be dissolved, or at least banned from running in the 2004 general election, for fraud in the last general election. Their demand, however, was thrown out of court due to lack of evidence.

Muladi said that a clarification was very important to rehabilitate Golkar's image, which had been in ruins ever since the start of the reform era. "This image rehabilitation is important if Golkar intends to win the next election in 2004," he said.

He revealed that the committee would push the Attorney General's Office to speed up the investigation into the Bulog scam. "The legal process must be accelerated in order to avoid political speculation," he said.

He claimed that Golkar would help Akbar to deal with the case. "Akbar must be backed by professional lawyers, and as a symbol of solidarity, Golkar will provide other lawyers who will give him political advice," he explained.

Muladi said that the party would also push for a snap extraordinary Golkar congress. Muladi denied, however, that such a congress would represent an attempt to topple Akbar from the chairmanship, in part to rid the party of Akbar's bad image.