More legislators sign petition to suspend Akbar

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A group of House of Representatives legislators are gathering support for speaker Akbar Tandjung's suspension, claiming to have secured 50 signatures while targeting 150, at least.

The petition could amount to an informal vote of no confidence against Akbar, who was sentenced last week to three years in prison after being declared guilty of corruption.

"We had 30 signatures this morning, by noon I was told the number had risen to 50," said legislator Susono Yusuf from the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction, who along with other legislators, had initiated the petition.

Akbar is in Hanoi, Vietnam meeting his counterparts in the International Parliamentary Union conference. He is slated to return from Hanoi on Thursday.

Word of the petition quickly made the rounds among legislators after it became public on Monday. The signatures however, had not been compiled on to a list as yet, Susono said, adding that he was relying on reports from colleagues passing the petition to keep abreast of its progress.

"We are targeting 150 (signatures) so that once Akbar returns, we'll greet him with this list," he added.

Despite the conviction, judges allowed the House speaker to remain free while he appeals the verdict to the High Court.

"Since the verdict came out, there has been talk among legislators about our response to it," said Dwi Ria Lativa of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the House's biggest faction, which apparently has not come up with a unified stance.

The House's internal regulations do not specifically deal with the dismissal or suspension of a House speaker, and Dwi Ria said among the three options they had considered -- a disciplinary committee, a vote of no confidence or the right to make a motion to remove him -- the third seemed most feasible.

"We will invoke the House's right to motion for a suspension of Akbar Tandjung as House speaker to guard the credibility of this legislature," reads the petition, a copy of which The Jakarta Post obtained.

Legislators normally use such motions to propose a law. But point b of article 12 under the House's internal ruling includes the presenting of a proposition or an opinion under that right.

Susono said he hoped to eventually obtain enough support to raise a vote of no confidence, for which they must collect signatures from more than half of the House's 500 members.

The movement comes as several House factions have been conspicuously quiet in criticizing Akbar, who chairs the Golkar Party, the House's second largest faction.

Analysts said PDI Perjuangan and the United Development Party (PPP), whose members, combined with Golkar, now virtually run the government, but that it depended on Golkar's continued political support.

But PDI Perjuangan member Aberson Marle Sihaloho gave a more sinister reason for the lack of open support for Akbar's dismissal, blaming money politics.

Akbar was sentenced for abusing the State Logistic Agency (Bulog) funds, which many believed he then channeled to Golkar ahead of the 1999 general election.

According to Aberson, nearly all the parties had received some Bulog funds, so they had a vested interest in keeping quiet, out of fear that Golkar would blow the whistle on them as well.

Meanwhile, prosecutors appealed for Akbar's arrest.

"We asked for his (Akbar) arrest before the appeal because that's what we stipulated in our indictment. We also asked the appeals court to overrule the (district) court's ruling and increase the three years (of jail) to four years," the General Attorney's Office spokesman Barman Zahir said as quoted by Antara.