Dissolving the DPR is ridiculous

Dissolving the DPR is ridiculous

The suggestion by Wimanjaya K. Liotohe DPR should be dissolved
published in The Jakarta Post on Feb. 5, 2001 is unthinkable to
me. The idea is not only ridiculous but outrageous and
unconstitutional. According to our 1945 Constitution, Article 2,
the sovereignty of the nation is in the hands of the people
exercised by the People's Consultative Assembly. In the annexed
pages of the constitution, it is stated that the position of the
House is powerful and the president cannot dissolve it.

There is something of importance caricatured in the confused
arguments of Liotohe, the vague sense between the Buloggate and
the Bruneigate probes and those inquiries which he termed
"manipulations".

Moral passions and legal convictions of legislators and those
who share the salient characteristic of inquisitiveness, sense
that the Buloggate and the Bruneigate are, prima facie, due to
the incumbent president's role in the affairs.

The formation of the special committee was of utmost
importance and inevitable to elucidate the nation of the moral
and legal implications which circumscribe the President and his
office.

The unjust enrichment of the chief executive's cronies from
Bulog's fund at the expense of others is morally and legally
accountable upon those alleged in the embezzlement.

I prefer not to discuss in detail the baseless reasons
proffered by Liotohe, under the pretext of sound arguments, for
as I have perused them, his bombastic phrases such as "the latent
power of the New Order", "below average qualifications", "the
House is just like kindergarten children" etc. are carping
criticisms, empty watchwords, worthless and irrelevant to the
current fundamental issue. They can also induce perennial
distasteful debate,

In appraising Liotohe's last point, I would like to quote
Professor H.L.A. Hart from his book The Concept of Law: "Audi
Alteran Partem", which means "Let no one be a judge in his own
cause".

MUHD. RAMZY HASIBUAN

Jakarta