Advisor defends decision to honor Habibie's family

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie's senior advisor has queried the uproar caused by the conferring of the nation's most prestigious honors on the President's wife, brother and close confidants, arguing that the medals have little commercial value.

"Why must you make such a fuss about these medals. No one would buy them if they came up for sale," replied A.A. Baramuli, chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council, when quizzed on the subject by journalists here yesterday.

Speaking after a meeting with Habibie at the Bina Graha presidential office, Baramuli claimed that the 38 individuals who on Saturday received the nation's highest and second highest honors deserved the recognition. The medals were presented in conjunction with the Aug. 17 commemoration of independence day.

Baramuli said Habibie told the council members that he had merely exercised his prerogative right to choose the recipients after receiving recommendations from a special selection team made up of senior government officials.

"There is a law on it (the awards). It is not merely President Habibie's will, because the law existed before Habibie came to power," Baramuli argued.

"He was just implementing the law. The decisions were made by a team," he added

Habibie conferred the nation's highest honor, the Bintang Republik Indonesia medal, upon his wife Hasri Ainun Besari, six current ministers and one former minister.

The second highest medal, the Mahaputra, was awarded to 30 individuals, including his younger brother Junus Effendy Habibie and close confidants Jimly Assiddiqie and Ahmad Watik Pratiknya.

The medals are each divided into five orders of merit: Adipurna, Adipradana, Utama, Pratama and Nararya.

Hasri received an Adipradana class medal, an award rarely given out to the sons and daughters of this nation.

The services she gave to the nation to entitle her to this most honorable of awards was not specified.

When earlier pressed by journalists to explain the decision, Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung was only able to suggest that it was her loyal dedication to her husband "through good times and bad" for which she had been awarded.

Baramuli was even more vague in his response yesterday.

He did not even specify the kind of national service usually required for such a high honor, merely arguing that as the President's wife she deserved such a distinction.

When asked by journalists whether she really deserved the medal after less than three months as the nation's first lady, Baramuli retorted: "The law demands it (the medal). Even if she is (the first lady) for only one day".

"She must receive state guests you know... She must be given a respectable position if she is the first lady," he contended.

Baramuli neglected to mention which law he was referring to. But Law No. 4/1972 states that only the president automatically gets the Bintang Mahaputra Adipurna while the vice president should receive the Bintang Mahaputra Adipradana.

The spouses of the county's leaders are not mentioned.

Baramuli also failed to note that Habibie has yet to receive any official state guests here.

This year the President received recommendations on who should receive the medals from a special team chaired by Coordinating Minister for Security and Political Affairs Feisal Tanjung. Tanjung himself received the Bintang Republik Indonesia Utama on Saturday. (prb)