MPR finishes drafting decrees
JAKARTA (JP): The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR)'s working committee have completed drafting decrees relating to President Abdurrahman Wahid accountability, accommodating all scenarios including a possible conditional acceptance.
Committee members however were quick to dispel talk that the drafting of a decree on an "acceptance with terms", aside from the conventional "acceptance" or "rejection", was a further sign that a political compromise to prolong Abdurrahman's embattled presidency was in the works.
"What we're preparing are technical and administrative matters, so that in case we need those decrees we're prepared," Committee chairman Jacob Tobing told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
"Beside we should not adopt a negative judgment over the accountability."
Apart from those three decrees, the working committee also worked on decrees on the appointment of the vice president as the new president, and for the election of a new vice president.
The Assembly is set to convene a special session on Aug. 1 to ask for the President's accountability.
If the accountability is rejected Abdurrahman would lose his mandate as president.
While Abdurrahman's fate looks grim, there have been increasing signs of a political compromise which could save his administration.
Many were quick to point to the drafting of a conditional acceptance decree as evidence of this, particularly since internal rules only require two alternatives in responding to the accountability: to either accept or reject it.
But just what exactly the "terms" would be under a conditional acceptance remains unclear as the draft itself leaves this portion blank.
This draft decree was initially proposed by members of the National Awakening Party (PKB), the strongest supporters of Abdurrahman.
Jacob, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle legislator, maintained that "this is not related to any compromise", contending that it was merely "a modification of the acceptance."
Another member of the working committee, Hamdan Zoelva of the Crescent Star Party (PBB), also claimed that this additional option was merely to accommodate all possibilities.
Lobby
Separately Minister of Defense Mahfud MD said on Wednesday that the team of ministers assigned by the President to lobby major political parties has completed its work and handed over its reports to the President.
Mahfud, however, declined to go into details saying only that "a peaceful solution is still possible."
"The Assembly's special session is an unavoidable event. It will be more appropriate for us to focus on the outcome of the special session, in which all political elements in the country can meet to compromise," Mahfud said.
Mahfud further hinted that compromise is essentially a distribution of power between the President, the Vice President, and other political parties.
Mahfud along with Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Agum Gumelar, Minister of Finance Rizal Ramli and Attorney General Baharuddin Lopa have been instructed to lobby strong political factions such as PDI Perjuangan, Golkar and the Axis Force to seek a compromise.
Meanwhile during a visit to Pasuruan, East Java, Abdurrahman reiterated his defiance saying that he was not required to present his accountability to the Assembly till the end of his term in 2004.
He maintained that the move to seek his accountability was unconstitutional and that he would fight it.
Speaking at a religious school, Abdurrahman told his supporters to remain calm and not be influenced by the friction among political leaders.
East Java is known as the bastion of support for Nahdlatul Ulama and the President. Abdurrahman led the Muslim organization for 15 years before becoming President. (02/nur/dja)