More legislators sign petition to suspend Akbar

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.