Nonbinding advisory commission set up

Nonbinding advisory commission set up

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The People's Consultative Assembly agreed during a plenary
meeting on Sunday to establish a commission that would issue non-
binding recommendations in response to progress reports delivered
by President Megawati Soekarnoputri and other state institutions
last Friday.

The planned commission was apparently a compromise between two
opposing camps in the Annual Session -- some factions demanding
the setting up of a stronger recommendation commission, with
others bitterly opposed to such a commission.

Several factions in the House have openly criticized President
Megawati's performance in the past year, especially the
involvement of her family members in business endeavors using her
patronage, undermining the government's efforts to eradicate
corruption, collusion, and nepotism.

The Reform faction, which is dominated by Assembly Chairman
Amien Rais' National Mandate Party (PAN), strongly criticized the
involvement of President Megawati's family members and associates
in business endeavors.

Through its spokesman Abdul Hakam Naja, the Reform faction
questioned Megawati's resolve to ban family members and close
relatives from doing business as she promised soon after her
ascension to the presidency in June 2001.

According to the faction, many quarters in society know about
the involvement of the President's family members and her close
associates in business under her patronage.

Without citing examples, the faction said the way the
President's family and associates conducted business was not
unlike the family members of previous presidents.

"While in fact, the President has to set an example for the
people," Hakam said.

The third plenary meeting of the Assembly session acknowledged
on Sunday that the capacity to give recommendations in response
to the progress reports from the President, the House of
Representatives, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Audit Body
(BPK) was vested in Commission C, which is also tasked with
deliberating a new decree on the Assembly's internal regulations
following the amendment to the 1945 Constitution.

Amien said individual factions would have no avenue to voice
their assessment of the performance of state institutions,
including the office of the president, if the Assembly did not
establish such a commission.

However, the role of the commission had been confined to an
advisory one as the newly amended Constitution had scrapped the
Assembly's power to demand accountability from other state
institutions.

"Recommendations given by the commission would be non-binding,
because as the Constitution now stands, the Assembly has an equal
standing with other state institutions," he told reporters on the
sidelines of the plenary meeting.

Amien also said that with the establishment of the commission,
harsh criticism expressed on Saturday by individual MPR factions
over President Megawati's performance could be toned down.

"We don't want to give the wrong impression that what the
factions had expressed yesterday was the official position of the
Assembly," he said.

Earlier, factions in the MPR have strongly demanded the
formation of a commission that would draft recommendations for
state institutions.

Golkar legislator Priyo Budi Santoso said without the issuance
of such a recommendation, the current Annual Session would lose
its significance.

The demand contradicted statements by Assembly leaders that
the Annual Session would not become a forum to assess the
President's performance.

Despite the non-binding nature of the recommendation, Amien
warned that the image of the President and other state
institutions would be tarnished if they chose to ignore the
assessment.

Later in the day, deputy speaker of the Assembly from
Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan) Sutjipto said the establishment of the commission
would not lead to the impeachment of President Megawati.

"PDI Perjuangan is confident that there are no efforts to
impeach the incumbent President, as the amended Constitution has
circumvented such a possibility," he said.