Army urges Gus Dur not to disband DPR<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto
\nwarned President Abdurrahman Wahid on Wednesday not to disband
\nthe House of Representatives, which over past months has been at
\nloggerheads with the embattled President.<\/p>\n
\"We ask him not to do it since it is against democracy,\"
\nEndriartono said at Army headquarters here.<\/p>\n
\"Issuing a decree (to disband the House) will only worsen the
\nalready poor relationship between the President and the House,\"
\nhe added.<\/p>\n
Endriartono was responding to speculation which has spread
\nsince the weekend, claiming that Abdurrahman plans to dissolve
\nthe House.<\/p>\n
He was quick to add, however, that the Army would remain loyal
\nto the President and that the military would not join the
\nPresident's rivals in calling for his resignation.<\/p>\n
\"We have no right to do that,\" Endriartono said.<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman flatly denied later in the day that he had any
\nintention of dissolving the House.<\/p>\n
\"There is no such thing ... that decree is only according to
\nwhat people say and if you believe it then it's your own fault,\"
\nAbdurrahman said at Bina Graha presidential office.<\/p>\n
Reports have emerged that, during a breakfast meeting with
\nmilitary brass on Saturday, the President proposed he would
\ndissolve the House through a presidential decree.<\/p>\n
The idea, however, was immediately rejected by Endriartono,
\nwho was present at the meeting along with Navy Chief of Staff
\nAdm. Indroko Sastrowiryono and Air Force Chief of Staff Marshal
\nHanafie Asnan.<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman also charged earlier on Wednesday that some
\nlegislators were trying to make the House superior to the
\nexecutive branch of government and vowed to fight them.<\/p>\n
\"The current wish of some people to elevate the House above
\nthe executive is a wish that should be fought against because it
\nviolates the Constitution,\" he told a seminar organized by the
\nNational Resilience Institute.<\/p>\n
\"If the president allows this to take place, then he has acted
\nagainst the Constitution and there is nothing else to do for him
\nbut to resign,\" Abdurrahman continued.<\/p>\n
Rumors that the President would dissolve the House also
\ntriggered a rebuke from House Speaker Akbar Tandjung on
\nWednesday.<\/p>\n
He said the House would immediately call on the People's
\nConsultative Assembly (MPR) to convene a special session to
\nimpeach the President if the latter issued such a decree.<\/p>\n
\"It will be an authoritarian and unconstitutional action if
\nthe President issues a decree to dissolve the legislature. We,
\ntherefore, will resist,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said that the Constitution does not allow the president to
\ndissolve the legislative body and the Assembly could use such an
\naction to justify the convening of a special session to impeach
\nthe president.<\/p>\n
\"According to the Constitution, the president cannot dissolve
\nthe House, and vice versa, because of their equal position in the
\nstate system,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Many have suggested that rumors of Abdurrahman's plan to
\ndissolve the House are only a tactic being used by the President
\nfor negotiation leverage.<\/p>\n
The outlook of Abdurrahman's political survival has become
\nincreasingly bleak following the House's issuance of a second
\nmemorandum of censure against him on April 30.<\/p>\n
The President has until the end of this month to respond to
\nthe second censure.<\/p>\n
Separately, constitutional law expert Harun Al Rasyid said
\nthat, while he does not personally agree with the need to issue
\nsuch a decree, theoretically the president has the authority to
\ndo so.<\/p>\n
He argued that, apart from powers explicitly stipulated in the
\n1945 Constitution and other laws, the president also has the
\nunwritten prerogative to act in situations which are deemed as an
\nemergency, such as during the time of first president Sukarno.<\/p>\n
However, Harun said that the current situation could not be
\ndeemed an emergency that would warrant the issuance of such a
\ndecree.<\/p>\n
Many have argued that the precedent for such a decree is a
\n1959 decree issued by Sukarno which at the time dissolved the
\nconstituent assembly. (02\/byg\/rms)<\/p>",
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