Golkar Party chairman Akbar Tanjung has warned he will instigate legal action people suspected of setting fire to the party's symbols during the election campaign.
Tanjung was speaking Thursday in Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, where dozens of Golkar flags were torched last week.
In Jakarta on Wednesday, student protesters burned Golkar flags at the state-run University of Indonesia. They also torched flags of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Vice President Hamzah Haz's United Development Party (PPP), denouncing the three parties as "products of the New Order" – a reference to former dictator Suharto's regime.
The students rejected the participation of the three parties in the April 5 general election, which they said was merely theatrical event being staged to fool the public.
Tanjung said Golkar would not accuse rival political parties of masterminding the flag burning incidents because it respects each party contesting the general election.
"However, it is very regrettable that it happened. Golkar does not discredit other parties. We merely convey the priority programs Golkar will struggle for in the future," he was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara.
The government-sanctioned General Elections Supervision Committee (Panwaslu) expressed regret over the flag burnings at the UI campus. Jakarta Panwaslu official Dedi Tambunan said the incident would be reported to police.
It wasn't immediately clear why Panwaslu seems more worried by flag burnings than thousands of traffic violations that are taking place during the ongoing campaign period.
Stoned again
Three Golkar supporters were reportedly injured on Wednesday when students from the Indonesian Christian University (UKI) hurled stones at them as they were passing down Jalan Diponegoro in Menteng, Central Jakarta. A number of passing cars were also damaged in the incident, which prompted police to intervene to stop the violence.
Golkar supporters were also on the receiving end of stones and verbal abuse during the campaign period ahead of the nation's last general election in June 1999.