Akbar Tanjung regrets Anwar's beating
JAKARTA (JP): Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung aired deep concern on Thursday over the mistreatment of sacked deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.
He also said President B.J. Habibie would likely drop a scheduled visit to Kuala Lumpur due to his tight schedule.
The Golkar chairman pointed out that as a former minister, Anwar deserved appropriate treatment from Malaysian police regardless of the charges leveled against him.
The court should decide whether Anwar is guilty or not, he argued.
"It is our expectation. But, of course, we hope that it (the mistreatment) will not occur again," Akbar said after meeting with Habibie at Merdeka Palace.
The comment was the first from an Indonesian official regarding the tension in Malaysia, though the minister quickly emphasized that he was speaking in a private capacity.
"Officially, there is still no statement. We have yet to issue any comment," Akbar said.
The President said last month he planned to make a one-day state visit to Malaysia later this month. The trip would have been Habibie's first since he replaced former president Soeharto in May.
He is also scheduled to go there in November to attend an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
Akbar, however, said this month's visit would likely be canceled due to Habibie's busy activities, including the commemoration of the Armed Forces (ABRI) 53rd anniversary on Monday and the preparation for the special session of the People's Consultative Assembly next month.
"It seems that the President feels it is rather difficult for him to leave Indonesia."
He did not link the cancellation with Malaysia's domestic situation.
Also on Thursday, Malaysian politician Ghafar Baba retracted earlier blunt criticism against Indonesian media reports on Anwar's sacking by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. He had challenged the Indonesian people to take Anwar as their own leader if they were so sympathetic to "a homosexual figure".
"No insult was intended toward anyone, including the leadership and the Indonesian media," AFP reported Ghafar as saying in Malaysia.
Ghafar came here last week to explain Malaysia's situation. His statements, however, angered many Indonesians, including some Moslem activists who demanded that he be sent home immediately for insulting the country.
Anwar is popular among young people and even top officials here. Habibie is known to have had a closer relation with Anwar, while Mahathir was reportedly closer to former president Soeharto.
"People can hand out their own judgments on our media, but it does not mean that it will affect the close relations between Malaysia and Indonesia," Akbar said about Ghafar's remarks.
Relations between the two countries have not always been smooth. Founding president Sukarno severed diplomatic ties with Malaysia on Sept. 17, 1963, just two days after Kuala Lumpur declared the establishment of the Malaysian Federation State.
The two countries became entangled in armed clashes for three years until 1966, during which Sukarno branded the Malaysian state as a new British colonial project which endangered Indonesia's unfinished revolution.
The two countries reopened diplomatic relations in August 1966, five months after Soeharto came to power.
Akbar said on Thursday that Habibie had not had any contact with Mahathir since the new development in the peninsular state.
"I think there's been no (contact). In the past there was, but I do not think recently."
In New York, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas and his Malaysian counterpart, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, signed a joint notification to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Wednesday over the long-standing dispute over Sipadan and Ligitan islands in Kalimantan.
The dispute over the two tiny islands, located just off the northeast coast of Kalimantan, first arose in 1969. Both countries claim sovereignty over the islands based on their colonial inheritance.
Soeharto and Mahathir agreed two years ago to bring the case to the ICJ. (prb)