Golkar, ABRI 'to lobby' PPP to accept Soeharto's speech

JAKARTA (JP): Officials from the Armed Forces (ABRI) and the dominant Golkar faction said they would "lobby" the United Development Party (PPP), the sole holdout in accepting President Soeharto's accountability speech.

Golkar's Agung Laksono and chairman of the Armed Forces faction in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Lt. Gen. Yunus Yosfiah said they would encourage PPP to accept the President's address.

Agung Laksono said Golkar would like to see the accountability speech endorsed by all five factions.

"We will strive for a total endorsement. We will lobby the PPP to accept the presidential accountability speech," he said, adding that there would be no exceptions to the presidential accountability speech.

"It's part of the Assembly's job," he said explaining the need for an endorsement. "That's why we are all here now."

Yunus said the Armed Forces faction would wait for PPP's final decision on the president's speech before exerting all its lobbying prowess to get an endorsement.

"We need to know the PPP's reasons for withholding its decision."

The PPP on Wednesday withheld its endorsement of President Soeharto's leadership accountability statement, saying it would announce its stance after the final debate scheduled for Monday.

The other four factions in the 1,000-strong Assembly -- the dominant Golkar, the Armed Forces (ABRI), the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) and regional representatives -- as widely expected said they would endorse the speech without reservation.

The Moslem-oriented PPP argued that President Soeharto had failed to give a crystal-clear explanation about issues such as the current economic crisis, poor law enforcement, corruption in the bureaucracy and the painfully slow pace of political change.

PPP secretary-general Tosari Widjaja said yesterday his faction's decision to withhold its endorsement of the President's accountability speech was not a violation of existing Assembly rules.

"Do not misunderstand our stance. We are in compliance with the Assembly sessions' procedures," he said quoting articles 90 and 91 of the Assembly internal rules.

Chairman of PPP's faction in the Assembly, Jusuf Syakir, supported Tosari's argument.

"I think we have to consider the issue proportionally."

He said that there were procedures that each faction was allowed to go through before it presented its final decision.

"We must have prior discussion on every subject brought into the Assembly's general sessions."

But in a late development yesterday evening, PPP's Hamzah Haz signaled that the party would likely bow and accept the accountability speech.

He told journalists to listen to the faction's response in today's meeting of Commission C in charge of deliberating the accountability address.

"We've already nominated Pak Harto, how can we reject his accountability speech," he said as quoted by Antara.

Decrees

When asked if the minority faction would also dispute the decrees to be endorsed by the Assembly, Jusuf said PPP would likely accept the drafts which had already been deliberated in the Assembly's working committees.

"We will endorse the drafts into decrees as there won't be any major changes to them," he said.

Later yesterday, the Assembly's three commissions held their first meeting to elect their respective chairpersons.

Commission A for State Policy Guidelines elected Golkar's R. Hartono as its chairman, Commission B for presidential and vice presidential elections named Gen. Wiranto of the Armed Forces faction as chair, while Commission C for presidential accountability will be chaired by Ida Bagus Oka of the regional representatives.

Deliberation in the commissions will run from today through tomorrow.

Each faction is scheduled to endorse the drafts of the policy guidelines and Assembly decrees and the President's accountability speech on Monday.

Golkar's secretary-general Ary Mardjono said yesterday that he expects no faction to reject the agreements concluded in prior sessions of the Assembly's working committees.

"All factions should comply with the agreements of the working committees," he said.

Yunus said he would ask other factions whether they were planning to reopen discussions in the working committees.

The Assembly's acceptance of the decrees is not unexpected as a unanimous agreement on the drafts was reached during preliminary sessions which were concluded in January. (imn/amd)