NO CHANGE IN PDIP'S STANCE ON CENTURY CASE : MEGAWATI

Bandarlampung, Feb 27 (ANTARA) - Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) chief Megawati Soekarnoputri said there would be no change in the party's stance on the Bank Century bailout scandal as expressed by its faction in the House of Representatives.

"I will not talk a lot about the Bank Century case, PDIP's stance is already clear," she said when opening the party's Lampung provincial third regional conference here on Saturday.

The PDIP faction in the House of Representatives Inquiry Committee had concluded that its field findings constituted strong clues of banking law violations, money laundering, and corruption.

Meanwhile chairman of the Financial Transaction Analysis and Report Center (PPATK) Yunus Husein said here recently that the Bank Century funds amounting to Rp6.7 trillion had flowed to the customers` accounts at 63 different banks.

Speaking before around 1,500 party's cadres and its executive board members of Lampung provincial chapter, Megawati said that PDIP's stance remained consistent to defend the people's interest, instead of the interests of a handful of people.

"The party was established not to defend the interest of some people, but to defend the interest of whole people, and I don't want the people to become apathetic," said Megawati who is also a former Indonesian president.
As a party that consistently defended the underprivileged people, she was not interested to have the ministerial post when such post was made only as bargaining tool to defend the interests of some people, not the interests of common people.

"If the portfolio offered to me and the people around me only makes us more distant from the people, I'd better choose to be ordinary people," she disclosed.

In the meantime, Lampung's governor Sjachroedin ZP was again reelected as Lampung provincial PDIP's chairman for 2010-2015 period in the accelerated implementation of the party's regional conference.

Lampung's PDIP is the ninth province of the country's 33 provinces which had conducted the party's regional conference.