PDIP DOOMED IF IT JOINS RULING COALITION: OBSERVER

Jakarta, March 23 (ANTARA) - Public support for the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDIP) will weaken continuously and reach rock bottom in the 2014 general elections if it coalesces with the ruling Democrat Party (PD), a political observer said.

"It will really happen if the PDIP joins the PD-led coalition that supports the SBY-Boediono government," political observer Sukardi Rinakit said here on Tuesday.

Rinakit made the remark to comment on PDIP Secretary General Pramono Anung's statement about the possibility of his party coalescing with the Democrat Party.

"If it happens, I predict that public support for the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle will surely weaken," Sukardi Rinakit said, adding that the PDIP would then even lose its most loyal supporters.

A similar view about PDIP was expressed by senior observer from the Center for Indonesian National Policy Studies (CINAPS), Hanny Senewe.

Hanny said the main axis supporting the PDIP, namely those with a Marhaenist ideology would surely feel offended if the party ceases to function as an opposition.

"This is because they have so far been in the forefront with various other elements of the public in opposing what they call Neo-colonialist imperialism (Nekolim) which is now also known as Neoliberalism (Neolib) whose stooges in the government, legislative, and business circles continue to build their capitalist network in the country," she said.