DPR and its maneuvering

DPR and its maneuvering

From Koran Tempo

If you take a hard look at our nation's legal system, you will
be shocked to see that it is fraught with ironies. The 1998
reform movement -- expected to become the pillar for upholding
the supremacy of the law -- still proves to be elusive. Every
effort to bring to justice the New Order regime's figures
involved in human rights abuse, corruption, collusion and
nepotism seems to have failed due to interference from the
political elite.

It is no surprise that Indonesia has been labeled as one of
the most corrupt countries in the world by the international
business circle, as to date, only very few of the corruptors have
been convicted and sent to jail.

Now even the House of Representatives (DPR) is bending the
law. The conclusion of House's special committee that President
Abdurrahman Wahid was involved in the Bulog and Brunei financial
scandals and had violated the State Policy Guidelines resulted in
the House issuing two memorandums of censure against the
President. As a result, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR)
is going to hold a special session on Aug. 1, 2001 that might see
the impeachment of the President. All these despite the fact that
the Attorney General's Office has absolved Abdurrahman of any
involvement in the above mentioned scandals.

DPR's maneuvering to bend the law did not stop there. When
Attorney General Baharuddin Lopa began an investigation into
House Speaker Akbar Tandjung and Arifin Panigoro (chairman of the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's faction in the DPR)
over alleged corruption, their colleagues, including MPR Speaker
Amien Rais, decried the move saying it was aimed at terrorizing
MPR/DPR members prior to the special session. This is an utterly
vulgar and uneducated behavior of the political elite.

The public knows that corrupt members of the former New Order
regime are still sitting at ease in the DPR. The Golkar Party's
political maneuvering in the 1999 general election was any
different from the previous general elections, which is fraught
with bribery. As far as Baharuddin Lopa is concerned, he has
integrity and is a law enforcer with a clean record.

Hence, would you please, honorable MPR/DPR members, give the
newly inducted attorney general a chance to enforce the law. If
it turns out that Akbar Tandjung, Arifin Panigoro
and others have to spend the night in the Attorney General's
Office cell prior to or after the MPR special session, so be it.
What really matters is that the law is upheld to eradicate
corruption, collusion and nepotism, and purge the DPR of
corruptors.

RIDWAN

Jakarta