Mar'ie's extended break sparks uproar at House

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad's "too long" a time-out without permission during a hearing session yesterday sparked a bitter protest from legislators.

Mar'ie took a 30-minute break while he was supposed to be hearing legislators comments on the revised 1998/1999 state budget.

The uproar was started by Markus Wauran of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) faction, who demanded that Deputy House Speaker Abdul Gafur, who was chairing the plenary session, to halt the meeting until Mar'ie reappeared.

Markus stood up to interrupt the session right after Gafur welcomed PDI spokesman Nico Daryanto to present the tiny faction's response to the state budget that the government revised to meet the International Monetary Fund's reform package requirements.

"We are not going to continue this session without the presence of the government's representative (Mar'ie)," Markus.

He said Mar'ie had insulted the House by taking too long a break without giving any reason.

"It's not ethical for a minister to behave like that. He should have informed the chairman of the session," Markus said.

Mar'ie left when the representative of the United Development Party (PPP) Endin Safira was addressing the House legislators to have a sudden meeting with Director General of Taxes Fuad Bawazier in a room next to the session hall.

Mar'ie, who was scheduled to welcome his Malaysian counterpart Datuk Anwar Ibrahim later in the day, failed to hear the Moslem- based faction's views on the new 1989/1999 state budget.

PPP legislator Bachtiar Chamsyah lamented Mar'ie's absence, saying that the incident underlined the widespread impression that the legislature always had to bow to the executive.

"How come the House must wait for a minister. We listened to him (Mar'ie), but then he failed to do the same thing to us," Bachtiar complained.

Golkar legislator Slamet Effendy Yusuf joined the criticism, saying that Mar'ie should have told the House in advance if he had other business that would require him to take so long a break.

"He (Mar'ie) should have respected the House by telling us that he would leave the session for a long time," Slamet said.

After PDI spokesman Nico completed his speech, Mar'ie asked for extra time to Gafur to apologize to the legislators for the unscheduled break.

But a hurried Mar'ie refused to comment to journalists on his behavior.

Gafur defended Mar'ie, saying that the minister did nothing wrong. "He did not skip the session, did he? It would be a big matter if he had not returned to the session."

Gafur said that many legislators often took breaks without the consent of the session chairman.

The deliberation of the state budget will resume next week. (amd)