Akbar confident of his leadership

Akbar confident of his leadership

JAKARTA: House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung said
on Friday that a petition over his suspension submitted by more
than 100 legislators would not proceed for further discussion
after the House's Steering Committee (Bamus) failed to make any
decision about his fate on Thursday.

The committee handed over the case to the House's leaders.

"I think that kind of a petition cannot be included on the
House's meeting agenda because the legislators' right of
interpellation should be directed only toward the government, not
the House's leaders.

"Besides, there has been no precedent of it (the House
deliberating on a proposal to suspend its speaker)," Akbar, who
is also the Golkar Party chairman, told the journalists at his
office.

More than 100 legislators from various factions, including the
Golkar faction, signed a petition demanding Akbar be suspended
from the House after he was sentenced to three years jail for
corruption.

Akbar has not been jailed pending the outcome of an appeal. --
JP