A few brave legislators try again to oust Akbar

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A new motion in the House of Representatives (DPR) to force House Speaker Akbar Tandjung -- convicted of corruption -- to relinquish his position had won the support of at least 70 legislators from various factions, according to the motion's initiator.

Legislator Dwi Ria Latifa from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) said on Monday she would continue to garner support for a new motion for at least another week.

"I have not actively circulated this motion, I have simply been waiting for fellow legislators to come and sign it," Ria Latifa said, adding that the motion had the support of legislators from a wide variety of parties, including the Golkar Party, which Akbar chairs.

The motion calls for the establishment of a disciplinary committee to determine whether Akbar should be allowed to hold his current position as the House speaker until the end of his term in 2004.

This is the second time that such a motion has been attempted following the recent decision from the Jakarta High Court, which upheld the Central Jakarta District Court's earlier verdict on Akbar of three years in prison for corruption.

Ria Latifa initiated a similar motion last year after the district court issued its verdict against Akbar, but that only won the support of a mere 68 of the 500 legislators. It failed to get through the process of scheduling for a deliberation from the House's steering committee.

The failure of the House to endorse the motion was apparently due to strong resistance from Golkar and PDI Perjuangan factions -- by far the two largest factions at the House.

In ultimately supporting Akbar, PDI Perjuangan hid behind a legal loophole, saying that it would rather wait for the decision from the Supreme Court before deciding anything regarding Akbar's position.

Immediately after the recent decision by the High Court, Akbar requested an appeal from the Supreme Court and remains free at the judges' discretion. The Supreme Court could take nearly a year to issue its final verdict.

According to Ria Latifa, the process to force Akbar to resign should be made much sooner. She added that she would also ask the Supreme Court to make Akbar's case its top priority.

Meanwhile, Golkar's Eka Komariah Kuncoro said she would support the motion if other legislators wanted her to do so.

Komariah suggested that the disciplinary committee would not only discuss Akbar's fate, but also the poor performance of other legislators who had failed in their House duties.

"All violations to the House code of ethics should be deliberated upon by the disciplinary committee," Komariah added.

Ria Latifa who hopes to get the support from all the women legislators conceded that most of them were reluctant to make such a decision.