Less workload prompts MPR to cut short Annual Session

Less workload prompts MPR to cut short Annual Session

M. Taufiqurrahman and Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) looks set to cut short
its upcoming Annual Session due to a lighter workload compared to
previous sessions.

Unlike the past five years, when the Assembly was working on
constitutional amendments, the 700-strong lawmaking body will
tackle low-key issues.

MPR Speaker Amien Rais said on Wednesday this time around the
Annual Session was unlikely to draw much public attention given
the mundane issues it would discuss.

"The whole session could be completed in no more than five
days," Amien said.

Originally the session was scheduled to run from Aug. 1 to
Aug. 10, costing taxpayers Rp 20 billion (US$2.4 million), around
the same amount spent last year.

For this year's Annual Session, the MPR has three main agenda:
to hear progress reports presented by the President, the House of
Representatives (DPR), the Supreme Audit Body (BPK) and the
Supreme Court, to review over 100 obsolete decrees enacted
between 1966 and 2002 and to establish the constitutional
commission.

There will not be a separate commission to respond to the
progress reports from the state institutions.

A member of the special ad hoc committee tasked with preparing
the Annual Session schedule, Rully Chairul Azwar, said only two
commissions would be needed during the session.

"Commission A will focus on the constitutional commission and
Commission B will concentrate on the review of obsolete decrees,"
he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

As far as the obsolete decrees are concerned, the Assembly
will be facing tough debate over the decree on impeachment of
founding president Sukarno and on the banning of the Indonesian
Communist Party (PKI) and Marxism and Leninism.

The 2003 Annual Session will not be the last for the MPR
legislators of the current tenure. Next year, it will convene for
the last time to hear accountability reports from the President,
DPR, BPK and the Supreme Court. It will also hear the report from
the constitutional commission on its achievement during its first
six months of existence.

2. 1 x 45

American journalist faces jail but says not guilty

Prosecuted into two months imprisonment for immigration offenses,
an American freelance journalist defended he did not commit any
acts or activities violating Indonesia's immigration law.

Chief prosecutor Efdal Efendy requested to the panel of judges
to sentence the defendant two months imprisonment because he has
been convincingly and legally proven to have violated Article 51
of Law No. 9/1992 on immigration.

"In his status as foreign citizen, Nessen failed to report on
the change of his address in Indonesia to the local immigration
office. He also did not have a permission from the Indonesian
government to work in the country," he said.

He said Nessen was guilty of failing to produce his passport
and visa when questioned by authorities. He also did not report
to police when he entered Aceh, did not have permission to work
from the manpower ministry, and did not have a press card from
the Indonesian foreign ministry and information ministry, Effendi
said.

The prosecutor also read the testimony of four government
officers from the Foreign Ministry, Manpower and Transmigration
Ministry, Justice and Human Rights Ministry and the office of
information minister who could not attend the court session.

According to the testimony of Heri Sudarmanto, chief of the
service section for foreign workers at the Manpower and
Transmigration Ministry, confirmed that the defendant has never
request labor permission from the Indonesian government.

Nessen was arrested June 24 when he turned himself in to the
army after traveling with rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM)
for three weeks.

The military said they suspected him of spying for the rebels,
who have been fighting for an independent homeland in the oil-
and gas-rich province.

Nessen and his lawyer Amir Syamsudin who directly after the
reading of the submission made their own defense in the court
session, denied the charges as irrelevant.

"Nessen is not proven to have committed faults indicted by the
prosecutors and I request the honorable judges to acquit him of
the charges," said Amir

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Violence against press rising: Rights body

Although the iron fist of the New Order regime has ended, rights
violations and the repression of the press continues in various
forms, ranging from intimidation and sexual harassment to
physical threats and has also led to the murder of press members.

The National Commission on Human Rights' (Komnas HAM) team to
monitor the freedom of the press disclosed on Wednesday that the
police had failed to curb the violent incidents even though
complaints had been filed by press institutions.

"Violence against journalists occurs not just in conflict-torn
areas such as Aceh and Papua, but also in other places," the
chairman of the team, Anshari Thayib, said.

Referring to several cases of violence against the press, the
team said that it would review press law No. 40/1999 to ensure
that journalists were free in their provision of educative news
to the people.

The cases included the present restrictions imposed by
military authorities on the coverage of the ongoing war in Aceh
province, and the recent assault of Tempo reporters and an editor
by angry protesters inside the Central Jakarta police station.

"Fanaticism sometimes motivates people to attack the media,"
said Anshari, referring to the attack on Radar Malang daily by
the Arema Malang soccer club's fans, and the intimidation of
Rakyat Merdeka daily's freedom of press in 1999. He said police
had failed to take action against the perpetrators.

The police were also criticized following the recent attack on
the Tempo (magazine) office by about 200 people claiming to
represent Tommy Winata, a businessman widely known for his close
relations with high ranking officers of the military and police.