Megawati official residence extended temporarily: Aide

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri's official residence on Jl.Teuku Umar, Central Jakarta, has been extended because the main house is under renovation, an official from the State Secretariat said on Wednesday.

Deputy presidential secretary for household affairs Bambang Irawan said the state had rented house no. 33, next to Megawati's official residence, nos. 27 and 29, for the head of state pending completion of the renovation project.

"We have to renovate the house at no. 29 because the building is already old and no longer suitable for the President," Bambang said, declining to mention the cost of the project, which is funded by the state.

"We are still awaiting submission of the design, so we cannot predict the cost or the time needed to complete the renovation," Bambang remarked.

Megawati has come under the media spotlight following reports that she had added a villa in Sentul, West Java, near Bogor, to her collection of three houses.

State Minister of National Development Planning Kwik Kian Gie, who is a top executive of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, said the land and property belonged to his family.

The President did not report the villa to the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN), along with another house in Gunung Geulis, Bogor, West Java.

According to Bambang, the house where Megawati lives is a state asset. The building was used to host meetings of Golkar Party leaders during the tenure of former president Soeharto.

Megawati began to live in the house when she was the vice president during Abdurrahman Wahid's 19-month presidency. She moved to the current house, as the vice presidential house on Jl. Diponegoro was under renovation at that time.

Bambang said that if Megawati completed her term in 2004, she would not automatically possess the house.

"It needs approval from the next president, as happened to former president Abdurrahman Wahid, who was not given a house after his tenure ended, as no presidential decree was issued to that effect," Bambang said.

Megawati took over from Abdurrahman on July 23 last year.

Regarding the Sentul villa, Megawati's husband Taufik Kiemas has denied that his family owns the property. He expressed his regret over what he termed media intervention into his family's affairs.

"How come journalists have become terrorists? If you have any evidence of the house ownership then you can ask me. I have never seen the villa before in my life," Taufik said.

However, he admitted that the family possessed a villa in Gunung Geulis under the name of their daughter Puan Maharani, so it was not reported to KPKPN.

On Wednesday a KPKPN team led by Muchayat visited the Sentul villa and Gunung Geulis to verify the media reports.

Muchayat said that only the villa at Gunung Geulis could be connected to the President's family, but not the one at Sentul.

"However, we will continue our investigation into the case. Just wait until the investigation is over. So far we have not found any need to question the President over the assets," Muchayat told The Jakarta Post.