Febriamy Hutapea & Muninggar Sri Saraswati – On the even of the National Mandate Party's (PAN) national congress, a senior member has called the congress "illegal" and criticized supervisory board chairman Amien Rais, who he claims is "acting like God."

Lawmaker Hatta Taliwang, an ally of outgoing party chairman Soetrisno Bachir, said at the House of Representatives on Wednesday that many party members had misinterpreted the role of Amien as PAN's supervisory board chairman, which allowed him to usurp Soetrisno's authority.

"Amien Rais acts like a God in the party by doing whatever he likes," Taliwang said. "Sutrisno Bachir seems like a doll, his role has been taken over by Amien. This is not healthy for the democratic process."

He cited as an example a leadership meeting at Amien's Yogyakarta home on April 19, 2009, when 27 provincial chairmen agreed to form a coalition with the Democratic Party to support President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's re-election campaign. This was in direct opposition to the wishes of Soetrisno, who planned to form a coalition with presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra).

Amien, an unwavering populist politician and nationalist, was at the forefront of the reform movement that led to the downfall of former dictator Suharto in 1998. In 1999, he led the newly formed PAN to secure 7.1 percent of the vote in the legislative elections.

Taliwang also branded the national congress as "illegal" and threatened to hold another congress in April.

"As one of PAN's founders, I am strongly against the party congress in Batam because it contravenes the party's goals and ideology," Taliwang said.

The congress, he said, had been convened using a party regulation annulled by the South Jakarta District Court in February 2009.

Meanwhile, the main aim of the national congress is to elect a new party chairman.

Squaring off against each other are heavy favorite Hatta Rajasa and the relatively unknown Drajad Wibowo, both of whom were nurtured by Amien.

Most pundits believe that the contest for the chairmanship of PAN would have not attracted much publicity was it not for the fact that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is looking to shore up his increasingly vulnerable ruling coalition in the House in the wake of the PT Bank Century scandal and whispers of attempts to impeach the president and key cabinet members.

Researcher Burhanuddin Muhtadi, of the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), said PAN would not risk electing Drajad because he was critical of Yudhoyono's policies. "SBY and the Democrats have a special interest in a Hatta victory," he said.

The former chairman of Yudhoyono's campaign team, Hatta, the coordinating minister for the economy, is one of the president's closest aides.