AGO's report on scandals 'has no bearing on House'
JAKARTA (JP): The result of the Attorney General's Office's investigation which cleared President Abdurrahman Wahid in the Bulog and Brunei scandals will have no political or legal bearing on Wednesday's House of Representatives' plenary session, political and law experts say.
Sri Soemantri, a constitutional expert at Jayabaya University, said that despite the attorney general's announcement on Monday evening, the House should still go ahead with its plenary session to appraise the embattled President's response to the second censure.
"According to the Constitution, the memorandum has both legal and political aspects. In terms of the two scandals, the House censured the President on the political basis," he told The Jakarta Post here on Tuesday.
The Attorney General's Office on Monday cleared the President in its investigation into the two scandals.
It was the controversy over these scandals and the alleged involvement of the President which led the House earlier this year to issue the first memorandum of censure.
Unsatisfied with the response given by the President to its first censure, legislators issued a second memorandum.
The House is set to convene on Wednesday to decide whether they should call for a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly.
Sri said the House censured the President on the political basis because his alleged involvement was considered to have violated the presidential oath and the 1998 Assembly decree on clean governance.
"However, the President could be also censured if the court finds him guilty in the scandal," he said.
Sri said further that the Constitution also guaranteed the Assembly's right to hold a special session in which the President could be asked for his accountability.
"The President could be impeached if the Assembly rejects the President's accountability about his violation of the Constitution in the two economic scandals," he said, citing that such a process was not dependent upon a legal investigation or a court ruling.
He said Abdurrahman was politically in a weak position because his supporters were a minority at the Assembly.
"If the Assembly is asked to hold a special session, the President will not automatically be impeached. During the special session, negotiations among factions will be under way to seek a political compromise. But, Gus Dur will be finished if he and his supporters fail to offer a political solution that can win support from their opponents," he said.
Sri, also a professor at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, West Java, regretted that so far Indonesia had no law on impeachment.
"The Constitution does not regulate the impeachment process. We have no rulings on whether a President can be brought to court, whether he or she should be suspended while undergoing an investigation and being tried, or on what kind of court should be set up," he said.
Maswadi Rauf, a political expert from the University of Indonesia, said he was doubtful of the objectivity of the attorney general's investigation.
Maswadi, however, said the Attorney General's Office's investigation only increased controversy.
"It is very difficult for the attorney general to carry out a fair and objective investigation into the scandals because the attorney general was appointed by the President. The public will also suspect political motives behind the investigation's results, which were announced only two days before the House's plenary session," he said.
Ramlan Surbakti from Airlangga University in Surabaya concurred, saying both the House's censure against the President and the impeachment process needed no legal proceedings.
"The House's censure against the President needs no legal evidence because the legislative body is a political institution and not a court," he said.
He said the President could be censured and impeached without due legal court process. (rms)