MPR set to hold meeting on Nov. 10

JAKARTA (JP): The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) will convene for an extraordinary meeting on Nov. 10 coinciding with National Heroes Day, it was announced yesterday.

MPR chairman Harmoko, who is also speaker of the House of Representatives, told reporters that the date was earlier than the agreement he had struck with President B.J. Habibie, which was to hold an MPR meeting by the end of the year or beginning of 1999.

"We decided to take advantage of the momentum of Heroes Day. It will give a certain nuance to the extraordinary meeting, to strengthen the unity and cohesion of the nation," he said after leading a meeting with other MPR leaders, Antara reported.

Many people had earlier speculated on a December date, given the various preparations that the government and the House have to make, including reviewing various political laws.

Critics of Habibie had called for an even earlier meeting, saying that the longer he postponed it, the slower the political reforms and therefore the slower the economic recovery.

The MPR traditionally meets once every five years. It met in March to reelect President Soeharto for a seventh term in office and Habibie for vice president. But Soeharto resigned in May amid strong public pressure calling for political reforms.

While no one disagreed about the need for an extraordinary meeting, politicians have debated how soon it should be held, and what exactly the meeting is expected to accomplish.

Harmoko and Habibie in their initial agreement last month said the MPR meeting had only one agenda: to set the date for the next general election.

Harmoko said yesterday the MPR leadership would assign the MPR Working Committee to prepare the agenda and drafts to be discussed at the extraordinary meeting.

The committee will decide on topics to be raised at the extraordinary meeting and how long it is expected to last.

The committee will begin preparations in August or September and all the materials should be completed two weeks before the meeting, he said.

Harmoko said that there would be some changes in the composition of the MPR membership before the meeting.

President Habibie last week already appointed 41 members to replace those who were personally selected by Soeharto.

MPR deputy chairman from Golkar, Abdul Gafur, said the dominant faction would replace some of its members before the MPR meeting.

But he said that any move to replace the children of Soeharto who represented Golkar in the assembly depended largely on their constituencies.

"So we will wait for the initiative from the regions," Gafur said.

Many politicians have demanded that Soeharto's children be expelled from the assembly because they won their seats chiefly because of their kinship.

Hutomo Mandalaputra, Soeharto's youngest son, has said however that he would only resign if his Golkar constituency in South Sumatra asked him to. (emb)