Don't talk so much, Wiranto tells Ghalib<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Defense and Security\/Armed Forces
\nCommander Gen. Wiranto on Wednesday loudly asked Attorney General
\nLt. Gen. Andi M. Ghalib to stop talking to journalists when the
\nlatter was responding to questions about the progress of
\ninvestigations into former president Soeharto.<\/p>\n
\"Ghalib, don't talk too much,\" Wiranto shouted to him as he
\nwas surrounded by journalists before attending a Cabinet meeting
\non economic affairs at the Bina Graha presidential office.<\/p>\n
Several ministers, including Minister of Industry and Trade
\nRahardi Ramelan and Minister of Information Muhammad Yunus burst
\ninto laughter upon hearing Wiranto.<\/p>\n
\"They're overwhelming me, Pak,\" a surprised Ghalib replied and
\ncontinued answering the press.<\/p>\n
Journalists asked him about the statement of Soeharto's
\ndefense lawyers who urged him on Tuesday to stop the inquiry into
\ntheir client's allegedly ill-gotten wealth.<\/p>\n
\"He has committed no offense involving criminal corruption nor
\nhas he broken any law,\" Juan Felix Tampubolon, one of Soeharto's
\nlawyers had said.<\/p>\n
\"It's a lawyer's job to help free his client. Their request is
\nnatural. It is different from an attorney's job,\" Ghalib said
\nwhen Wiranto unexpectedly interrupted him.<\/p>\n
As soon as he arrived at the meeting hall, Ghalib sought out
\nthe journalist of the Merdeka daily.<\/p>\n
\"Are you from Merdeka?\" he asked a protocol officer.<\/p>\n
Ghalib told Minister of Communications Giri Suseno
\nHadihardjono that he was upset with the newspaper's headline
\nwhich stated that he was 'butchered for half a day' during his
\nhearing with the House of Representatives (DPR) on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
In that hearing not less than 15 members of the House
\nCommission I on political affairs and security queried him about
\nreports of a leaked telephone conversation, supposedly between
\nGhalib and President B.J. Habibie. Some of the legislators even
\ntold him that he did not have the guts to probe Soeharto's
\nalleged corruption.<\/p>\n
\"The hearing proceeded normally and I was not treated as
\nMerdeka reported,\" he said to Giri.<\/p>\n
He smiled and agreed when a journalist said Ghalib had passed
\nthe toughest test when receiving last year a chicken from
\nTrisakti University students for his lack of guts in probing
\nSoeharto's alleged corruption.<\/p>\n
Wiranto himself was reluctant to talk to journalists and asked
\nthem to speak to other Cabinet members.<\/p>\n
\"Please disperse from here,\" he told journalists. (prb)<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/dont-talk-so-much-wiranto-tells-ghalib-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }