Golkar's policy draft to be used as reference<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): After a week of debate, minority factions in the
\nPeople's Consultative Assembly (MPR) agreed yesterday to use
\nGolkar's draft as the outline for drawing up the coming state
\npolicy guidelines (GBHN).<\/p>\n
After a week of delays and long debates, representatives of
\nthe United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic
\nParty (PDI) acquiesced with a note of defiance.<\/p>\n
They maintained that their factions accepted Golkar's draft
\nonly because of procedural reasons.<\/p>\n
\"We have to adopt one draft to become the main topic,
\nreference or whatever its name is, to enable our session to
\nproceed smoothly,\" PDI's Soedarjanto told the Assembly committee
\nin charge of state policy guidelines.<\/p>\n
\"We are pressed for time, so we need a pragmatic approach to
\nend this debate,\" he added.<\/p>\n
In exchange for the approval, the committee agreed to accept
\nall the drafts proposed by the five factions in the Assembly as
\nofficial documents which would be taken into account in the
\ndrawing up of the state policy guidelines.<\/p>\n
Until yesterday's session, PPP and PDI refused to join the
\nArmed Forces and the regional representative factions to back the
\ndominant Golkar's bid to make its draft the reference for the
\ncoming deliberations.<\/p>\n
PPP had proposed its own draft, while PDI suggested the
\nAssembly readopt the 1993 state policy guidelines as the outline.<\/p>\n
A relieved chief of the committee, R. Hartono, hailed
\nyesterday the unanimous support for the Golkar draft in spite of
\nthe committee's different views.<\/p>\n
\"I thank all the committee members for their statesmanship and
\nwisdom that have led us to an approval. Each of us fully
\nunderstands that we have to agree to one thing first before going
\nto another debate,\" said Hartono who is also Minister of
\nInformation.<\/p>\n
\"Nobody wins or loses. We will work together to improve the
\ndraft because we want to present a state policy guideline which
\ncan meet public demands,\" he claimed.<\/p>\n
The drawing up of the state policy guidelines starts today.
\nHartono said the committee could end its job earlier than the
\noriginal deadline of Jan. 22 next year.<\/p>\n
Stubborn<\/p>\n
The debate over which outline to use looked as if it would
\ndrag on further earlier yesterday morning with PPP spokesman
\nMuhammad Buang saying that his faction would not budge from its
\nposition.<\/p>\n
This prompted Hartono to adjourn the meeting for a three-hour
\nbreak only minutes after he opened the session. He asked each
\nfaction team to consult its leaders during the interval.<\/p>\n
PPP's and PDI's stubbornness subsided after the session
\nresumed in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
\"For the sake of national interests, we do not mind accepting
\nthe Golkar draft. We have found out that after studying the other
\ndrafts, there are many similarities, although we believe our
\ndraft is able to meet the public's aspirations the best compared
\nto the others,\" Buang said.<\/p>\n
Soedarjanto said PDI admitted that committee members had
\ndiscussed various issues of the draft's semantics during the
\nbreak.<\/p>\n
Golkar spokeswoman Siti Hardiyanti praised PPP and PDI for
\ntheir approval but said that their compliance did not mean a
\ndefeat for anyone.<\/p>\n
\"Our draft is not the best one,\" she humbly conceded. \"It's
\nopen for improvement by other factions.\" (amd)<\/p>",
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