Harmoko receives new job description
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto gave the newly appointed state minister of special assignments, Harmoko, his job description yesterday, which is to brief new members of the House of Representatives before they are inducted on Oct. 1.
Harmoko is expected to help the new legislators prepare to accommodate people's rising aspirations and demands.
Harmoko, who will also sit in the House, described his new ministerial duty after an hour-long meeting with President Soeharto at Merdeka Palace.
"According to the President, this (the briefing of new legislators) is not to indoctrinate but merely to help them improve their abilities" Harmoko said.
In a surprising move last week, President Soeharto appointed retiring Army Chief General R. Hartono as the minister of information, replacing Harmoko who had led Golkar to a 74.36 percent-of-the-vote win in last month's general election.
Harmoko said he would stay in cabinet as state minister of special assignments until Sept. 30, before taking a seat in the House. He is expected to be elected as House speaker because he chairs the dominant party, Golkar.
"Our administrative system does not allow a legislator to serve concurrently in a government position, so I will leave the cabinet before October," Harmoko said.
Hartono and Harmoko will be installed by Soeharto tomorrow at the State Palace.
Harmoko will be assisted in his new post by Alwi Dahlan, who chairs BP7, an agency in charge of public education on the state ideology Pancasila. Administratively, Harmoko will be assisted by Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono.
Moerdiono and Alwi also attended yesterday's meeting.
Based on the provisional election result, Golkar is expected to hold 325 of the 425 contested seats in the House of Representatives. The United Development Party (PPP) is expected to hold 89 and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) 10. The three parties will negotiate for the last contested seat.
The other 75 seats in the House are reserved for the Armed Forces, whose members do not vote.
Harmoko said he would find the best way to fulfill his new duties. His new office is in the Ministry of Information compound, where he used to hold meetings and press conferences.
Harmoko refused to answer questions about his performance as information minister for more than 14 years, saying that only the President had the right to evaluate him.
"If you have the courage, you can ask the President directly," Harmoko told journalists, before bursting into laughter.
Harmoko issued a ministerial decree in 1984 which empowered him, as minister of information, to revoke publishing licenses. Many observers, editors and reporters have said the controversial decree conflicts with the 1982 Press Law which guarantees press freedom.
Two Jakarta-based newspapers, Sinar Harapan and Prioritas, were among the decree's first victims. They were banned in 1986 and 1987 respectively.
In June 1994, the Ministry of Information revoked the licenses of three major news magazines, Tempo, Editor and DeTIK, for repeatedly ignoring the government's warnings on the way they reported news and managed their operations.
"I've always tried to do my best," Harmoko said.
Harmoko declined to comment on speculation that he was in the running for election as vice president in the general session of the People's Consultative Assembly next March.
But he was confident that his successor, Gen. Hartono, would make a good minister of information.
"I think this new information minister will be more capable than me because I'm sure that the President appointed him after thorough consideration," Harmoko said. (06)
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