Bulogate not valid reason to unseat Gus Dur: Expert

Bulogate not valid reason to unseat Gus Dur: Expert

BANDUNG (JP): The House of Representatives lacks the legal
basis to summon President Abdurrahman Wahid over the alleged Rp
35 billion scam at the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), not to
mention to seek his removal, an observer said on Sunday.

Sri Sumantri, a senior constitutional law expert from
Padjadjaran University said after speaking at a seminar here that
the House could not question Abdurrahman over the case because it
had nothing to do with any presidential decree.

"It would be very easy to ask for the President's
accountability if he issued a decree. Due to the absence of the
decree, it is Sapuan who should be held responsible," Sumantri
said.

He was responding to a plan by the House commission III for
agriculture and plantations to seek the President's clarification
after the main suspect in the scandal, suspended Bulog deputy
chief Sapuan, implicated Abdurrahman.

The money stolen from Bulog was taken by people claiming to be
acting on Abdurrahman's behalf. The President has admitted he
asked about the possibility of taking Bulog money to pay for
projects in troubled Aceh province, but said he never went ahead
with the idea.

Sumantri also said the case was not a valid reason for the
legislators to ask for an extraordinary session of the People's
Consultative Assembly to remove Abdurrahman, because there was no
clear evidence of his direct involvement and, therefore,
violation of any terms in the state policy guidelines (GBHN) and
the Constitution.

Pressure on Abdurrahman's leadership is mounting ahead of a
meeting of the 700-member Assembly which will convene in August
to review his performance.

Police have named Sapuan and Abdurrahman's masseur, Suwondo,
as suspects in their investigation. The latter so far has not
appeared for questioning and his whereabouts remains unknown.

A close aide of Abdurrahman, Bondan Gunawan, resigned as
acting state secretary last week over the affair.

Meanwhile, lawyers of Suwondo's wife said in a media statement
on Sunday that their client admitted she had received Rp 10
billion from her husband and that she would return the money to
the government.

The lawyers also said that their client, Tety Nursetiati, is
due to be questioned by the police on Monday.

The lawyers added that Tety had also sent a letter to the
President to request security protection for her family as they
had received threats and had been followed by unidentified people
since the scandal surfaced two weeks ago.

On Saturday, the National Awakening Party (PKB), which was co-
founded by Abdurrahman, attacked politicians it claims are
exaggerating the extent of the Bulogate, saying in reality it was
simple swindle that people close to the President were victims
of.

PKB secretary-general Muhaimin Iskandar suggested that the Rp
35 billion (US$4 million) scandal had been politically
manipulated by "certain" political elites to undermine the
president.

Muhaimin contended that the case was actually quite simple:
Abdurrahman's masseur Suwondo cheated the then Bulog deputy chief
Sapuan by claiming that he was mandated by the President to
receive Rp 35 billion from Sapuan.

"This is not a corruption case, this is merely a case of
deceit," he said.

Muhaimin said he first met Suwondo five years ago when the
latter visited the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) office in Jakarta. At
that time, according to Muhaimin, Suwondo was working for former
president Soeharto.

"There is no doubt that Suwondo is Soeharto's man. I know this
exactly," claimed Muhaimin, who described Suwondo as a skilled
masseur.

Separately, National Economic Council member Faisal Basri
urged the government to comprehensively resolve the scandal
because failure to do so would worsen the country's already
tarnished image.

Faisal, also a National Mandate Party (PAN) deputy chairman,
hoped the scandal would not be misused as political axe against
the current government. (25/44/byg/prb)