Megawati to obey second summons

Megawati to obey second summons

JAKARTA (JP): The ousted chief of the Indonesian Democratic
Party, Megawati Soekarnoputri, confirmed yesterday that she will
appear before the police investigating the recent riots as
requested by the amended summons sent to her on Monday.

"Megawati will go to the City Police headquarters at 9 a.m. on
Friday," one of Megawati's lawyers, R.O. Tambunan, said yesterday
at Megawati's home in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.

He said Megawati had agreed to answer the second summons,
dated August 5, after the police corrected an earlier summons.

According to the revised summons, a copy was made available to
The Jakarta Post, Megawati will be questioned as a witness for
the defamation charges leveled against the student activist and
chairman of the Democratic People's Party (PRD), Budiman
Sudjatmiko.

The first summons only stated that Megawati would be
questioned in connection with "crimes committed between June 17
and July 28 this year".

The crimes were related to the "free speech forums", which
were held daily after Megawati was ousted in June by her rival
Soerjadi in a government-backed rebel congress.

The first summons did not name the suspects which Megawati was
expected to testify against.

Tambunan said the second summons, in contrast with the earlier
one, correctly named Megawati as a member of both the House of
Representatives and the People's Consultative Assembly.

Tambunan, however, said that his client would again request
the details of the Presidential approval for the questioning
before she would answer to the police. He argued that the police
must have authorization from the President to question a House
member.

Megawati's stance was criticized yesterday by Attorney General
Singgih who said that an order for interrogation from his office
was sufficient.

According to Law No. 3/1970 on police investigation, the
police do not need a presidential approval to interrogate
Megawati, Singgih said.

He said his office had summoned many House or Assembly members
without an approval from the President: "Mentioning that the
President approves the summons is enough. The summons doesn't
have to be attached with the actual letter of approval.

"Why don't they believe that the President has given his
approval?" he said. "Before the law, House and Assembly members
and officials of other high state institutions are the same as
other Indonesians."

Riots

Yesterday, government investigators continued questioning
politician Ridwan Saidi who has been detained by the attorney
general's office since Monday.

Ridwan, a former legislator from the United Development Party,
now chairs the Indonesian People's Assembly; a loose coalition of
non-governmental organizations.

Controversial soothsayer Permadi Satrio Wiwoho was also
questioned yesterday in connection with the riots involving
Megawati's supporters on July 27.

Another person being questioned is labor activist Muchtar
Pakpahan, who was once charged with subversion. He chairs the
Independent Prosperous Labor Organization.

Separately yesterday, the government-sanctioned Federation of
All Indonesian Workers Union denounced the riots and the people
it said had masterminded them.

Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief told workers not to be
influenced by the propaganda "launched by leftist groups intent
on creating disturbances and political instability".

The political observer and vice governor of the military
think-tank National Resilience Institute, Juwono Sudarsono, has
called on the government to find the roots of the social problems
which had caused the riots, rather than hastily accuse communist
activists of being behind the incident.

"Poverty seems to be the major factor that triggered the
incident," he said.

Juwono said that the PRD might have used "the language of the
communists in their activities...but what's important is to
see ...the widening gap between the rich and the poor, which has
prevailed for too long."

"If people are poor and injustice prevails, communism or any
other radical movement will be here to stay," Juwono said,
quoting the late Mohammad Hatta, Indonesia's first vice
president.

He said, only the upper class enjoyed political stability.

"For the poor, stability is something that restricts their
efforts to voice their suffering," he said. "People become
violent when they're fed up with seeing rich people getting
richer and richer from nepotism and facilities."

It has nothing to do with the political system, he said.

"I think the political system itself is good. But it has never
been implemented properly," he said. (imn/rms/sim/16)