Megawati sitting pretty until 2004

Megawati sitting pretty until 2004

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri may breath a sigh of relieve, at
least for the time being, as there are no prospects that she will
be unseated by legislators in the same way that former president
B.J. Habibie was unseated in 1999.

Megawati will still have to present her accountability report
next year, as Habibie did, but the People's Consultative Assembly
(MPR) agreed on Tuesday that it would not assess her performance.

"In next year's session, there will be no separate commission
set up to issue a decree in response to the accountability
report," GBPH Joyokusumo, the chairman of Commission C1
deliberating a new decree on the MPR's standing orders, told
reporters here.

Indonesia has had three presidents in the last five years.
Habibie's successor Abdurrahman Wahid was impeached by the MPR in
July 2001. Soon after, Megawati took over.

The MPR factions have agreed that the Assembly would convene
for the last time in September 2004 to hear the President's
accountability report.

However, the report would have no legal or political
consequences for the President as the Assembly would not respond
to her accountability report on the implementation of the state
policy guidelines (GBHN) through the issuance of a binding MPR
decree.

The question of how binding or non-binding an MPR decree may
is not as easy as it seems, though. Last year's MPR decree on
Aceh, which stipulated a peaceful solution to the separatist
issue, for example, was binding. Yet, with MPR support, the
President decided otherwise this year.

Joyokusumo said that the responses to the accountability
report would be presented by individual MPR factions rather than
as a separate decree.

He said the 1999-2004 MPR would convene on Sept. 30 at the
latest. However, should it fail to convene on that date, it would
have to hold the session at least one week before the new crop of
MPR members for 2004-2009 were sworn in.

"We will discuss the matter further with the General Elections
Commission (KPU)," he said.

Previously, the factions in the MPR were at odds over whether
or not the President would have to deliver an accountability
report during the 2004 session. The Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) insisted that the President should
only have to deliver a progress report on her three-year
administration.

The National Awakening Party (PKB) faction demanded that the
accountability report be delivered in April 2004. The faction
said that Megawati was elected by the current MPR and therefore
she should present her accountability report to the body that had
elected her.

Joyokusumo said that the factions on Commission C1 had also
agreed that the 2004 session would also hear reports on how much
the constitutional commission had done in carrying out a
comprehensive review on the amendments made so far to the 1945
Constitution.

Separately, Commission C chairman Barlianta Harahap said that
the Assembly would recommend that the House of Representatives
(DPR) set up a disciplinary committee to promote greater
discipline and honesty among its members.

He declined to comment when asked if such a council would also
decide the fate of House Speaker Akbar Tandjung, who has been
convicted of corruption. He is currently appealing his
conviction.

Barlianta also said the Commission C2 had not discussed a
proposal from a number of factions in the MPR to fire Minister of
Trade and Industry Rini M. Suwandi for her alleged involvement in
irregularities in the purchase of Russian-made Sukhoi jet
fighters.

Earlier, Rizal Jalil of the Reform Faction, which is dominated
by MPR speaker Amien Rais' National Mandate Party (PAN), had
demanded that the Assembly issue a recommendation for the
dismissal of Rini, whom he claimed had violated various laws and
regulations in a barter deal with a Russian export firm.