Military faction in House sits out censure decision

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Military (TNI)/Police faction at the House of Representatives decided to play safe on Monday, opting to sit on the fence on the crucial decision of whether to issue a second memorandum of censure against the President.

TNI/National Police faction chairman Lt. Gen. Budhi Harsono said his faction decided to abstain because it did not want to get caught up in the mounting political conflict between the President and the legislature.

"We decided to stay out of the voting because both the military and its faction in the House want to remain neutral. Both the military and the National Police do not want to be trapped between rival groups," he told The Jakarta Post here on Monday.

Budhi expressed regret that the prelude over the second memorandum had sharpened conflict between certain factions in the House and the President along with his supporters.

"Our faction is very concerned ... the conflict has been mounting not only between the President and the legislative body but has also dragged in the grassroots level which could lead to a civil war," he said.

Budhi remarked that the faction supported the issuance of the first memorandum on Feb. 1 "because we considered it as a mere warning to the President."

"But now, we're seeing that the first memorandum has accentuated the conflict and struggle for power. This conflict could pose a serious danger to the nation unless the military and the National Police remain neutral," he said.

During the evening vote on the memorandum all 38 legislators in the faction abstained.

The TNI/Police faction in its political stand presented to the plenary session skirted the issue of the memorandum and instead focused on an appeal for all sides to end political bickering and pay serious attention to the nation's problems.

"The prolonged conflict must be halted and all sides should work hard to resolve all the problems through dialog," Maj. Gen. Ronggo Soenarso said reading the faction's political stance at the plenary House session.

Ronggo also expressed concern over various interpretations of the substance of the memorandum.

"Some are of the opinion that the memorandum concerns the President's violations while according to others the memorandum is based on the House's evaluation of the government's performance," he said.

He said the different interpretations must be sorted out by the legislative assembly as the highest state institution and law-making body.

Separately political analyst Mochtar Masoed of Gadjah Mada University told the Post in Yogyakarta that the TNI/Police faction's stance aimed not to alienate other factions thus allowing it, if necessary, to work with these factions in the future.

Mochtar said even if the TNI/Police agreed with the memorandum it did not have to go public since it was already well known that the majority of House factions would support the censure.

Military observer MT. Arifin remarked that despite their declared stance, the TNI/Police faction actually supported the issuance of the second memorandum.

But by abstaining TNI/Police can project a more acceptable image.

"Should military and police personnel have to deal with security problems due to the issuance of the second memorandum, they won't be burdened by their decision and won't find it difficult to gain the people's trust," he said. (44/rms)