MPR disposes of regional representatives faction
JAKARTA (JP): The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) decided on Saturday night to dispose of the regional representatives faction, and introduce the interest group faction instead.
The decision was taken in a vote, in which 379 out of 640 people attending were in favor.
Based on the vote, Assembly factions will now comprise of political parties, the military and interest group.
There was repeated confusion over the voting procedure as the total vote count did not match the number of attending Assembly members.
The voting had to be repeated twice, following a flurry of interruptions.
Even during the second vote the total number of votes were short by two votes compared to the reported number of Assembly members attending.
During the session which went beyond midnight, Assembly members were also due to vote on the composition of the Assembly leadership.
The race for the Assembly chairmanship position was thrown wide open on Saturday after major political groupings nominated their chiefs for the post.
Standing between red hot favorite Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid and the Assembly post will be Akbar Tandjung of the Golkar Party, Matori Abdul Djalil of the National Awakening Party (PKB), Hamzah Haz of the United Development Party (PPP) and Lt. Gen. Hari Sabarno of the Indonesian Military (TNI).
The election is scheduled for Sunday. A member of the special team assigned to deliberate the MPR internal ruling, Soenarko, said all 11 representatives of the political groupings unanimously agreed to the mechanism of the election.
Soenarko said they also agreed that losers in the vote would be given posts as MPR deputy chairpersons.
PKB secretary-general Muhaimin Iskandar said his party was almost certain of appointing Abdurrahman, widely known as Gus Dur, to the top MPR job.
"Our political stand is clear: that we will support Megawati Soekarnoputri's nomination for the presidency and Gus Dur for the MPR's number 1 position," he said.
Megawati's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), has also nominated Abdurrahman, who is the PKB's founder, although it also selected Matori as an alternative candidate.
Muhaimin said Abdurrahman deserved the position, not only because of his role in the PKB, but also because of his charisma. Abdurrahman also chairs the country's largest Muslim organization, the Nadhlatul Ulama.
"He is an acceptable figure, and quite close to the political elite and to the people," he said.
Muhaimin however said PKB would also back its chairman, Matori, if the alliance of nine Muslim-based parties known as the "axis force" maintained its support for Abdurrahman's presidential bid.
Khofifah Indar Parawansa, another PKB legislator, said her party was lobbying other parties to win support for its two candidates.
Ekky Syahruddin of Golkar said his party's nomination of Akbar for the Assembly leadership was almost certain.
"No official nomination has been made, but everybody has Akbar on their minds. You can prove it in the election tonight or Sunday," he told The Jakarta Post in a break at the MPR General Session.
Ekky said during a recent informal meeting that Golkar functionaries had agreed that Akbar was the only party member eligible for the position.
"In addition to his current position in the party, Akbar has a good personality. He is bound to Javanese norms more so than Javanese, and is mature in politics," he said.
PPP deputy chairman Zarkasih Nur said his party had decided to nominate Hamzah Haz for the MPR chairmanship.
"We PPP legislators met on Friday and decided to nominate Hamzah and seek support for his nomination from other parties, especially Muslim ones," he said.
Maj. Gen. Budi Santoso, a TNI representative in the Assembly, said Hari Sabarno was named for the MPR top position because he was the most senior TNI representative in the Assembly. (rms)