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