Mar'ie's extended break sparks uproar at House

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)