'Bambang a liability to Mega'

JAKARTA: State Secretary/Cabinet Secretary Bambang Kesowo sustained another blow as noted scholar Nurcholish Madjid called him a liability to President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Nurcholish said on Thursday that Megawati should "seriously" consider removal of Bambang from his post.

He said demands for Bambang's exit from the Cabinet raised by House of Representatives legislators were strong enough reason to view him as a liability.

Some members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, which Megawati leads, have also asked for Bambang's widening influence in her Cabinet to be reduced.

Bambang, a government official in the New Order government, was Megawati's close aide when she was vice president between October 1999 and July 2001. -- JP