House factions reduce upcoming recess period

JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives (DPR) decided on Friday to cut short its recess, a move that will allow the legislative body to assemble in time to issue the second memorandum to President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

Heri Akhmadi, secretary of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction, said all factions reached an agreement in a closed-door meeting to have a shorter recess from April 2 to April 25 as the House will have numerous tasks to do in the next two months.

"All factions agreed to have a shorter recess so that the House's next sitting will start ahead of schedule," he said, but did not elaborate.

Earlier on Thursday, the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction submitted a petition that the proposal to cut short the recess be rejected. The proposal was submitted by major factions on Friday last week.

Syamsul Muarif, chairman of the Golkar Party faction, confirmed that the recess was cut short to three weeks from six because the House had to complete its deliberations on the bill on special autonomy for Aceh and to evaluate the government's performance in line with the Feb. 1 issuance of the first memorandum.

"The bill on Aceh autonomy must be endorsed before May 1, when the planned special autonomy in the troubled province will be implemented. The House must also evaluate the government's performance in accordance with the deadline of the three month memorandum on April 30 at the latest," he said.

Syamsul reminded that the House is likely to issue the second memorandum if the president fails to make improvements in the government as required in the first.

"We will evaluate not only the president's response to the first memorandum, but also any improvement made within the three- month period," he said.

Sophan Sophiaan, a member of the PDI Perjuangan faction, said the House would be likely to issue a second memorandum to the president because of a lack of improvement in the government.

"Gus Dur is actually unable to cope with numerous problems and lead the nation," he said.

According to the 1978 MPR Decree, the House is allowed to call for a special session to impeach the president if the latter is considered to have failed to make improvements in his government.

Outside the meeting room, hundreds of Gus Dur supporters shouted and demanded the factions schedule a plenary meeting to annul the memorandum, saying that the president was not involved in the two alleged financial scandals.

Arief Budiman, a representative of the protesters who had occupied the House complex since Thursday, said they would not return home unless the House revoke the memorandum.

"We demand the House Factions Meeting Forum (Bamus) schedule a plenary session to annul the memorandum and avoid bloodshed at the compound," he said.

He said People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Amien Rais and House Speaker Akbar Tandjung be unseated as both were allegedly behind the moves to topple the President.

In a related development, an alliance of Betawi Student and Youth organizations called on Gus Dur's supporters to return to their hometowns to avoid worsening the situation in the capital.

"It's better for them to go back voluntarily before we have to drive them out by force," Fachrur Rodji, the alliance spokesman, said.

Separately, City Police chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Harry Montolalu said on Friday that members of the Student Executive Boards (BEMs) had surrendered 32 molotov cocktails, which the students said they had found amid the scuffles near the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) office in Central Jakarta on Wednesday.

"I'm really grateful to these students for handing over the evidence, although they are two days late," Harry told reporters at city police headquarters.

He added that the 17 people who had been detained on Wednesday over the scuffles, included four students from the Bung Karno University, while most of them were clients of YLBHI.

"There was a deserting Navy officer, Second Sgt. Suhanto, who was among the 17 detained. We have handed him over to the Military Police," Harry said.

"We have released all clients of YLBHI since they were not involved, while the students are still being questioned." (rms/ylt)