Akbar, teacher make peace

JAKARTA: Former House of Representatives speaker Akbar Tandjung has agreed to drop his lawsuit against a senior high school teacher who wrote a civics textbook he deemed libelous.

Teacher Retno Listyarti, who works at State Senior High School 13 Koja in North Jakarta, said on Wednesday that the Golkar Party politician had accepted her offer to revise the book. She said an additional note would be added to the assignment sheet in Chapter 2 requiring students to find and read the Supreme Court's verdict acquitting Akbar from corruption charges in February 2004.

"Last night Pak Akbar's lawyer called me and told me he accepted my offer. It's quite a surprise after seven weeks of mediation which looked like it was going nowhere," said Retno, who received a youth award in 1992 from Akbar when he was youth affairs minister. "Pak Akbar is now drafting the memorandum of amicable agreement to be read out in court," she added.

Akbar was upset by Retno's book, which discusses the dissenting opinion in the Supreme Court's verdict that overruled the lower courts' conviction of Akbar in a 1999 graft case. -- Antara