Indonesian Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri was saying here Monday that the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR)'s special session to open on August 1st was the only possible way to settle the present political impasse and various problems in Indonesia.
The vice president made the remark to the Unity Party (PP)’s Acting General Chairman Mardinsyah.
"The vice president said that we must find courageous solutions to the nation's problems, namely through the holding of the special MPR session," Mardinsyah said.
The vice president also mentioned a number of mistakes made during the 1999 MPR general session, which she considered to have caused the present political conflict within the political elite, the chairman said.
Megawati, who is also general chairperson of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the 1999 general election had proceeded in a fair manner so that the subsequent MPR general session should also have been held fairly in that it should have given the first chance (to lead the government) to the party that had won the election.
PDI-P was the winner in the 1999 election but the MPR general session elected Abdurrahman Wahid as president.
Wahid's party, the Nation's Awakening Party (PKB) only won 10.2 percent of the votes in the election, ranking fourth after the PDI- P (33.6 percent), the Golkar Party (24 percent), and the United Development Party (PPP) (11 percent).
(Xinhua News Agency 07/09001)
