Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri is riding roughshod over her party and sidelining many of her allies as she veers towards the military and the corruption-tainted Golkar party in order to shore up her position ahead of the 2004 presidential elections.
A number of moves by Ms Megawati, particularly a decision not to launch a parliamentary probe into a corruption scandal implicating Golkar chief Akbar Tandjung, have come under fire from both within and outside the party.
"I was so disappointed when the House of Representatives rejected the plan. I fear that apparently there was a mutual agreement behind the decision," said Dr Amien Rais, National Mandate Party (PAN) chief yesterday.
He was referring to parliament's decision on Monday not to set up a special commission to probe the 40-billion-rupiah Buloggate scandal. Almost every member of Ms Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) abstained from voting – a move analysts suspect is the result of a deal between the party leadership and Golkar in exchange for the latter's backing.
Observers say Ms Megawati's party is moving away from alliances with Muslim parties such as PAN while shoring up alliances with Golkar – the second largest political party in Indonesia – out of an innate distrust of mercurial Muslim leaders.
Others say Ms Megawati is extremely conservative and is focusing on securing her position regardless of whether her allies are corrupt or lack reformist credentials. "Even though its name is the Democratic Party of Struggle, it is really the aristocratic party of conservatism," said political analyst Ikra Nusabakti.
Some PDI-P members concur, claiming their party leadership has a very undemocratic style of arriving at decisions as well as an ability to cause internal strife. "The decision-making process is not right, we don't know who is making the decisions, it is just too elitist," complained PDI-P legislator Meilono Suwondo.
One theory has it that the party ordered its members to oppose setting up a parliamentary investigation because Ms Megawati's husband, Taufik Kiemas, was also involved in borrowing or diverting large sums of money from national food agency Bulog.
Another controversial decision apparently made without consultation was to back incumbent Jakarta governor Sutiyoso for another term of office despite his poor track record and his military background.
"Of course many civilian politicians are annoyed with this because it means there is little chance for a civilian politician to become governor of Jakarta," said Mr Ikra.