Hot debate over Soeharto's offer to step aside
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto's reported remarks that he was prepared to resign if people no longer trusted him provoked a wide debate here yesterday, in spite of a correction by Foreign Minister Ali Alatas from Cairo.
The chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), Harmoko, said he hoped to "consult" with Soeharto as soon as the latter returned from Cairo to discuss the statement.
Harmoko refused to elaborate.
Soeharto, during a meeting with Indonesian community in Cairo on Wednesday night, said he did not see it as "a problem" if people no longer trusted him.
His remarks were interpreted by some media here, and picked up by news agencies later, as if he was prepared to stand down.
But Alatas, who was accompanying Soeharto in Cairo, said yesterday: "It seems there is some confusion about what has been said, and what the foreign press has interpreted."
He said that Soeharto had in the past made clear he would not oppose a call for him to step down if it was made through the constitution and the country's assembly.
"He (Soeharto) has said on several occasions before that if the people do not have any trust in me anymore then of course that is their right, and he would not oppose it as long as it is done constitutionally. I repeat as long as it is conveyed and decided upon...through our elected representatives in the consultative assembly."
With the rioting escalating in Jakarta, a number of politicians picked up on the theme of resign, and demanded that the assembly speeded up the process.
Kosgoro, a mass organization affiliated to Golkar, called on the MPR to hold an extraordinary session to process the motion.
Kosgoro welcomed Soeharto's purported remarks, calling him "a gentleman, a patriot, a true fighter who always puts the interest of the people and the country ahead of his own."
In an open letter, Kosgoro appealed to Soeharto and Vice President B.J. Habibie to "return" the mandate given to them by the MPR in March through the extraordinary session, Antara reported.
"This is in line with the President's remarks in Cairo that he was ready to stand down," said the statement, signed by Kosgoro chairman Bambang Soeharto and secretary general Effendi Jusuf.
Other Kosgoro leaders were present at the meeting in which the statement was read before the media. They include former cabinet ministers Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, Hayono Isman, and Siswono Yudohusodo.
The statement said Kosgoro members who sit in the MPR will soon write to the Assembly leadership to hold the extraordinary session.
It also called for a revamp of the cabinet and make it "free from elements of corruption, collusion and nepotism."
"This is our way of supporting Pak Harto. It's not to bring about his downfall, but to save him," Bambang said.
Amien Rais, the chairman of Muhammadiyah, said Soeharto's statement was not comforting enough and would not likely to calm public anxiety.
Amien said reading through the remarks, he did not think Soeharto would step down until after 2003, the year when he finishes his current seventh five-year term.
"Soeharto has stated on many occasions that he was ready to step down. But of course he never did," he said in Yogyakarta.
Amien said the government has lost all legitimacy, whether morally or politically.
A group of public figures, led by human rights lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution interrupted a meeting of the leaders of the House of Representatives, led by speaker Harmoko, to call on the MPR to set up an interim government to defuse the worsening political and economic crisis and the spreading riots in the capital rather than wait for an extraordinary MPR session.
"We must take a short-cut. Now. We are racing against time. The burning of buildings and shops and the looting in the capital is spreading.
"We ask you to go and meet Soeharto in Cairo and ask him to immediately step down. You shouldn't waste time. You should go now," Buyung said.
Poet Rendra, who joined the group, read a poem dedicated to four students of Trisakti University who were shot dead by security forces on Tuesday.
Budi Hardjono, the chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party Faction in the House, said an extraordinary session of the MPR could be one solution to the current political impasse.
"When Pak Harto returns, we will ask for his confirmation about the story. I need to check it first," Budi told reporters.
"If he had decided to step down, then this has to be done and processed in accordance to the constitution. An extraordinary session of the MPR is the solution," he said. (team)