Govt admits irrelevant people part of President's entourage
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government admitted on Wednesday that a number of unnecessary participants had been included in the President's entourage for foreign visits, and promised not to include them in future so as to reduce the burden on taxpayers.
Responding to criticism from legislators at a hearing at the House of Representatives on Wednesday, State/Cabinet Secretary Bambang Kesowo said that President Megawati Soekarnoputri had decided to reduce the size of her entourage to not more than 75 people.
"The President ordered the move because we all know that our country is suffering from a prolonged economic crisis," Bambang said at a hearing with House Commission I on security and foreign affairs.
The number of people in the entourage was highlighted at the hearing, but that was not the main point of the legislators' criticism.
They stated that the President had included both her own and her husband's close associates.
They cited daughter Puan Maharani, friend Retty Laksamana Sukardi and three political analysts -- Rizal Mallarangeng, Cornelis Lay and Denny J.A.
Another permanent member of Megawati's entourage is Jacob Nursalim, brother of notorious Indonesian tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim, as special adviser to her husband Taufik Kiemas.
Bambang admitted that there were people that did not have "the need" to be included in the entourage and the President's office would change that.
"We fully understand criticism over the number in the entourage. Earlier we were unable to reduce it for reasons that we cannot reveal here. But we will try to do so on future trips," he added.
Despite the criticism, Megawati will embark on another tour on Oct. 22 to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Mexico, the Group of 15 developing countries (G-15) summit in Venezuela and will conclude the trip in Cambodia to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.
Thus far this year, Megawati has visited 14 countries, including her most recent and controversial trip to South Africa, Algieria, Bosnia, Hungary, Croatia and Egypt, the schedule for which included visits to tourist attractions.
Legislators and critics cited that Megawati should have returned after attending the World Summit in Johannesburg and not continued on her journey.
She also promised to share the results of her recent trip, but as of now, almost two weeks after her return, she has not yet revealed the outcome of the 15-day journey.
Megawati came under fire after it was revealed that her visit to these six countries alone had cost the country around Rp 22 billion (US$2.4million).
Bambang stated that the President spent in 2001 a total of Rp 105 billion in visiting 13 countries during her first six months in office.
However, Bambang failed to answer legislators' questions regarding the relevance of most of the President's foreign visits, apart from her attendance at several important meetings.
He simply said, "Next time we will pay more attention to the purpose of the visits."