Commission deliberations end smoothly on last day

JAKARTA (JP): The final day of commission-level deliberations in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) went smoothly yesterday with only a minor "interruption" on a technical issue.

The end of the commission meetings sets the stage for tomorrow's plenary session to formally endorse the State Policy Guidelines and other decrees, including a provision to grant extra powers to the president.

Such was the brevity of the three commission meetings that it caught several journalists off guard as they ended ahead of their scheduled two hours time allotment.

Commission A discussed the State Policy Guidelines, while Commission B talked about the presidential and vice-presidential elections and non-State Policy Guideline decrees. Commission C deliberated on the President's accountability address.

The five decrees set to be passed are on extra presidential powers, the Assembly's internal rules, the presidential and vice- presidential elections and the outline of the policy guidelines.

The swiftness of the commission meetings was not unexpected as prior agreement on the draft decrees had been reached in preliminary session which ended in January.

The only noticeable incident yesterday occurred when a speech by the United Development Party's (PPP) Bachtiar Chamzah was interrupted by Golkar's Fahmi Idris.

Before ending Commission C's meeting, deputy chair Agung Laksono asked all five factions to briefly reassert their support for the renomination of President Soeharto and the acceptance of his accountability speech.

When PPP's turn came, their spokesman proceeded to give a long account of the party's support for Soeharto and B.J. Habibie as the presidential and vice presidential candidates respectively.

Time limit

Fahmi Idris soon interrupted saying that PPP had exceeded its time limit and that it was a repetition of previous statements.

PPP Assembly chairman, Yusuf Syakir, later expressed disappointment over the interruption.

Yusuf said the faction felt it was important to state its reasons for nominating Soeharto and Habibie.

"This is not a mere village meeting which has little weight and can quickly elect a neighborhood leader," he charged.

Fahmi vehemently argued that PPP had violated procedures when it went beyond its allotted time. "All the other factions only used up an average of two minutes, but PPP exceeded that," he said noting that they had run close to five minutes.

Agung Laksono, who is also a Golkar Assembly member, seemed to support the interruption.

"An interruption is allowed only if it does not touch the substance of the meeting, but only on the procedures and technical aspects," Agung said.

President

Later yesterday afternoon, Habibie in his capacity as the coordinator of Golkar's Board of Patrons, held a closed door meeting with representatives from the coalition of the Armed Forces, bureaucracy and Golkar at the House of Representatives building.

Those seen in attendance included Armed Forces commander Gen. Wiranto and the Assembly's Armed Forces faction chief Lt. Gen. Yunus Yosfiah, representing the Armed Forces; regional representatives chief Hasan Basri Durin, the home ministry's director general for social political affairs Achdari, representing the bureaucracy; and outgoing State Minister of Public Housing Akbar Tandjung and Golkar executive Abdul Gafur, representing Golkar.

Few details of the meeting were given, with Tandjung merely saying that it was a regular update on the results of the General Assembly.

Tandjung said there was no discussion of preparations for the presidential and vice-presidential inaugurations. He added that Habibie would report the results of the meeting to Soeharto as Golkar's chief patron.

This afternoon, representatives of the five factions are to individually meet with President Soeharto at his residence on Jl. Cendana, Central Jakarta.

The meetings will proceed in alphabetical order with the Armed Forces faction going first. The factions will tally Soeharto's administrative requirements and formally ask if he is ready to be renominated for president.

The dominant Golkar faction will meet with Soeharto at 3 p.m. with a delegation comprising of outgoing State Minister of Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita, Akbar Tandjung, outgoing Minister of Information R. Hartono and outgoing Minister of Transportation and Golkar executive Ary Mardjono.

Antara quoted PPP chairman Ismail Hasan Matareum as saying that he would not go himself to meet with Soeharto.

The five representatives from the faction's central board of executives will be enough, he said. (das/byg)