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)