Impeachment seminar not until 1998

Impeachment seminar not until 1998

JAKARTA (JP): A controversial seminar on the impeachment of
Indonesia's first president Sukarno will not be held until after
next year's presidential election.

Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono told reporters yesterday
the decision was made in view of the public reaction to the
planned seminar.

Moerdiono said the rescheduling was deemed necessary because
Indonesia faced two major political events in the next 12 months:
the May general election and the People's Consultative Assembly
session to elect the president in March next year. "They are very
crucial events and should top our priorities," he said.

While there was no urgency, Moerdiono defended the plan to
hold the seminar, "to explain to the young generation the
political processes that decided this nation's fate".

The seminar, to discuss president Sukarno's last public
speech, was originally planned for this month, before it drew
sharp reactions.

In the speech, titled Nawaksara (nine points) and read before
an emergency session of the Provisional People's Consultative
Assembly (MPRS) in June 1966, Sukarno defended his administration
and did not condemn the communist uprising in 1965. The MPRS
rejected the speech and moved to impeach him.

Armed Forces chief spokesman Brig. Gen. Slamet Supriadi said
the military supported the seminar to inform the public about
what really happened during and after the affair.

He noted that President Soeharto has approved the plan.

Businessman Sofyan Wanandi, a former student leader who took
part in the massive anti-Sukarno street protests in 1966, said
the seminar should not proceed.

There is nothing more to discuss about the speech, Sofyan
said. The seminar would only lead to polemics, he added.

"For me, it's already over, because the leadership change was
constitutional. We have held five elections since then and nobody
has questioned the New Order's legitimacy," he said.

Rather than holding a seminar, historians and witnesses should
write a book if the intention is to give accurate information on
what happened, he said.

Amien Rais, chairman of the Muhammadiyah Moslem organization,
said the country should not waste time rebutting "a few people"
who doubted the truth of the Nawaksara, Antara reported.

"We have to be careful when speaking about Sukarno as an
individual and a former president," he said. "If necessary, the
plan should be dropped."

"I fear that the seminar will only cause disunity among us,"
he said in Surakarta, Central Java. "Let the historic event
belong to the past," he added. (amd/imn)