Sunday, February 27, 2011

HKTI and its splinter group trade police reports

The splinter group of the Association of Indonesian Farmers (HKTI) filed a report to the Jakarta Police against the organizations original group chairman, Prabowo Subianto, only hours after the latter reported the chairman of the splinter group, Oesman Sapta Odang, to the same police office on Saturday.

Oesman accused Prabowo of having illegally used HKTIs name and logo during a meeting held in a hotel last week.

Our legal division came to the Jakarta Police to file the report, he told The Jakarta Post. Lutfi Hakim, an attorney representing Prabowo, reported Oesman to the police for falsifying documents while registering Prabowos version to the Law and Human Rights Ministry.

They registered our headquarters as their official office to the ministry. The office belongs to the HKTI under Pak Prabowos chairmanship, Lutfi said, as quoted by Vivanews.com news portal.

Oesman challenged Prabowo by saying, please go to the ministry and ask them which HKTI is the legal one.

The bickering between the two, with each group claiming to be the legal organization, has intensified after Oesman placed advertisements with a number of print media outlets.

The advertisements contained messages such as a gratitude to the Law and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar for issuing the legality of his organization.

We suspect that they have fed the ministry with false data and information leading to the issuance of the legality of the bogus HKTI, Lutfi said.

Oesman was elected as HKTI chairman in Denpasar, Bali, in August, last year, almost simultaneously with Prabowo Subiantos reelection as the chairman the other HKTI, also in Denpasar.

Like Prabowo, Oesman is a founder of a political party. Prabowos Greater Movement (Gerindra) Party won 26 House of Representatives seats on its debut in the 2009 elections, while Oesmans Regional Unity Party