Habibie's speech invites applause

Habibie's speech invites applause

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie's accountability speech,
whether because it was good, bad or extremely controversial, was
met with at least 47 rounds of applause and three interruptions
by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) members on Thursday.

The 638 Assembly members attending the function clapped their
hands when Habibie read his achievements in law enforcement
against corruption, collusion and nepotism.

Such a reception invoked laughter from Habibie three times
during his three-hour speech.

But a previous consensus of maintaining an uninterrupted
session was breached three times by Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) legislators.

The first interruption came from PDI Perjuangan faction chief
Sutjipto just before the speech began. He requested security
officials to stop shooting at students who were rallying outside
the Assembly compound.

About 90 minutes into the speech, another PDI Perjuangan
representative, Zulfan Lindan, made Habibie stop his speech.
Zulfan drew the Assembly's attention to the shooting spree on
student protesters, which was continuing.

Senior politician Sabam Sirait took his turn requesting
security officials to stop the shooting.

Assembly Speaker Amien Rais tolerated the interruptions for
the sake of reform movement. Nevertheless, after the third break,
Amien asked the members not to get carried away and to stop
interrupting the speech. (02)