Economic rescue decree shot down

Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Legislators of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) rejected on Saturday a proposal for a decree on a comprehensive economic rescue package.

Aisyah Amini of the United Development faction and Sabam Sirait of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle faction stated on Saturday that such a decree was unlikely.

Aisyah said that her faction would, instead, give the government a special notation regarding the issue.

"In that notation, we'll recommend that the government give more attention to several sectors that, we thought, have long been discounted," Aisyah added.

The proposal for an MPR decree came from economist Pande Radja Silalahi over the weekend. He argued that the special decree on a recovery program was necessary to cope with the global economic turmoil, which many analysts believe is heading for recession.

"The decree is needed to synchronize and coordinate all the related issues. The new decree will then get all the groups focused together," Pande said.

Pande, along with other experts grouped in the Alliance for a New Indonesia (PIB), was last month invited by the Second Ad-Hoc Committee of the MPR to provide an economic blueprint consisting of a comprehensive guideline for the economic recovery process.

The blueprint was designed to enable the government to get focused so that the economic recovery process could be accelerated.

Sabam said that for now, he did not feel the urgency to establish a special regulation to prop up the progress of recovery.

"The government has already had difficulties carrying out existing decrees, in the most proper manner. How can we create new ones?" he said.

The slow progress of an economic recovery package in the country has drawn criticism from experts and other elements of society for the country's highest legislative body to set up a new formula to rescue the deteriorating performance of the domestic economy.

Many have blamed the external turbulence, exacerbated by the Sept. 11 tragedy, for the government's poor economic performance.

"The decree proposal definitely is a good input, but I cannot guarantee that it will become a draft, let alone a decree," Sabam said.