No need to 'interrupt' leadership election
No need to 'interrupt' leadership election
JAKARTA (JP): Senior Golkar legislator Akbar Tandjung said
yesterday that based on the smooth proceedings so far, he saw no
reason for anyone to interrupt either the presidential or vice
presidential elections.
Akbar told reporters that there should be no arguments against
the substance of the state leadership nominations as the Golkar
faction had made a commitment on its presidential and vice
presidential candidates.
"Golkar legislators will only interrupt the election if there
are violations of the (procedural) agreement," he said.
He said that all of Golkar's 588 legislators had unanimously
supported the renomination of Soeharto and the nomination of the
outgoing State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie.
He also said that interruptions on the substance should only
be delivered by each faction's floor leader.
"Only the floor leaders know about the overall topics being
discussed, including the agreement between the five factions in
the People's Consultative Assembly," he said.
Akbar said the commitment was needed to respond to speculation
that there would be interruptions during Wednesday's vice
presidential election.
Speculation on the sidelines of the General Session has been
rife that those most likely to interrupt are members of the
Golkar faction itself.
Following the adoption of the State Policy Guidelines and
other decrees, the focus of the Assembly's work for the remaining
two days is the election of the president and vice president.
There are no foreseeable challenges to the election of
Soeharto or Habibie because all five Assembly factions have
nominated the two as their sole candidates.
Akbar said yesterday the only likely interruption would occur
if there were procedural deviations or a need for further
clarification on a subject being discussed.
He cited Saturday's interruption in Commission C by Golkar's
Fahmi Idris. Fahmi interrupted the United Development Party's
Bachtiar Chamsyah as the latter was perceived to be in violation
of the allotted time.
Golkar's Hajriyanto Thohari lamented that prohibiting Assembly
members from initiating interruptions during proceedings could
have an adverse psychological impact.
"They (Assembly members) then might not have the courage to
make corrections to the session proceedings, which might be
inconsistent with the agreement or the regulations," he said.
He, however, shared Akbar's opinion that interruptions should
not question substance which had received the prior consent of
the five factions.
"Interruptions on the substance should be held during internal
meetings of each faction," he said, "There should not be any more
interruptions on the substance in the Assembly's plenary
session."
He, furthermore, admitted that Assembly members might have
problems with his membership if he dared make an interruption on
substantial matters.
"At the very least a legislator will be reprimanded," he said.
A legislator from the Armed Forces faction, Ibrahim Saleh, was
dismissed after he interrupted the 1988 vice presidential
election. (imn)