Bandar Lampung – The Lampung province I regional leadership board (DPD) of the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas) is calling on its members to block presidential and vice presidential candidates that are pro-neoliberalism. They are also inviting the people to build a national coalition government for national self-sufficiency.

This was conveyed by Papernas Lampung DPD chairperson Rakhmat Husein D.C. in a press release in the provincial capital of Bandar Lampung, South Sumatra, on Saturday June 8.

According to Husein, the three presidential and vice presidential candidates for the 2009 presidential elections have now been finalised, namely Megawati Sukarnoputri-Prabowo Subianto (Mega-Pro), Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono-Boediono (SBY-Boediono) and Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto (JK-Win).

In the midst of the uproar surrounding these presidential elections, the discourse on the issue of neoliberalism has also grown stronger. “It can be said, that the three presidential tickets who are fighting it out in the presidential elections reject being linked with neoliberalism or being accused of being neoliberal adherents”, said Husein.

Despite this, he said, it is clear that two of the presidential tickets, namely Megawati-Prabowo and Kalla-Wiranto tickets have taken up the themes of “a people’s economy and national self-sufficiency”.

This situation indicates how neoliberalism as an ideology and economic system is seen as a threat to national economic advancement and the Indonesian people. “This is a form of anti-neoliberalism against the incumbent presidential candidate SBY who is pursuing neoliberal practices”, he said.

Thus Papernas will not be abandoning [the opportunity presented by] the momentum of the presidential elections. Because, the political [battle] field of the 2009 presidential elections is clearly an arena for the people to fight neoliberal practices. “Because we believe that the SBY-Boediono ticket are adherents of the neoliberal road, we will be calling for unity to defeat this ‘neoliberal’ duet”, said Husein.

Papernas, he said, is also calling on all Indonesian people and the country’s patriots to defeat neoliberalism. For workers, farmers, the urban poor, intellectuals, artistic and cultural workers, and even families of military officers and domestic businesspeople to unite and form a “national coalition government for national self-sufficiency”.

“There are two presidential tickets that represent an alternative choice, the two tickets are JK-Win and Mega-Pro who have explicitly sated that they will build national self-sufficiency and a people’s economy”, he said.

According to Husein, there are three positions that continue to be held by Papernas in determining their political outlook. The three are referred to as the “National United Tripanji (Three Banners)”, namely repudiating the foreign debt, the nationalisation of foreign mining industries and building the national industry (factories). “The resolve of two of the presidential and vice presidential candidates (Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto and Megawati-Prabowo – Ed.) is in line with our position.” (n AAN/U-2)

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of this report was “Papernas: Block the pro-neoliberal candidates”.]