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.