PAN to Decide on Prabowo-Hatta Duo in Working Meeting

Jakarta (Antara) - The National Mandate Party (PAN) will decide whether it will support the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa presidential pair-up in a national working meeting next Wednesday, a PAN politician said. "We will announce on May 14, 2014 in a national working meeting which is the highest mechanism forum after the Congress," PAN politician Viva Yoga told a discussion on "Post-Real Count: The Direction of Political parties" here on Sunday. He said that the national working meeting will discuss several agenda, including the platform format of the coalition and the direction of the coalition. "The second agenda is to name Hatta Rajasa as a vice presidential candidate. The third is to welcome Prabowo who will attend the meeting. I think this is clear," Viva Yoga said. Hatta Rajasa is the general chairman of the PAN while Prabowo Subianto is the presidential candidate and chief patron of the Greater Indonesia Movement (Gerindra). He said that his party would name Hatta as a vice presidential candidate as he was an experienced technocrat in government. "He has been named minister for three times and he knows the challenges Indonesia is facing in the future," Viva said. Hatta is also an economist who had vast international networks. He also has economic vision which is an added value for him to be named a vice presidential candidate, Viva added. It will be up to presidential candidate Prabowo and the greater Indonesia coalition. On the coalition format, according to him, PAN will table several steps. The first is the immediate implementation of the Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution, particularly Article 33 and 34. "The second step is the determination of PAN to resume the agenda of the second reforms programs to create a new Indonesia. So, we will push the format of the coalition so that parties would sociologically serve as the manifestation of various ethnic communities but are grouped in political parties, and this will become huge strength," he said. (*)