Ousted PDI leader Megawati unlikely to answer summons

JAKARTA (JP): Ousted leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) Megawati Soekarnoputri is unlikely to answer a police summons issued as part of a probe into recent rioting. She is expected to send her lawyers instead.

Sources said yesterday that the team of lawyers, which includes R.O. Tambunan, Harjono Tjitrosoebono and Soekardjo Adidjojo, will represent her during the questioning, scheduled for 10 a.m. today at the City Police Headquarters in Central Jakarta.

The source said Megawati was advised against appearing because the police summons contained legal flaws, including the fact that it reached Megawati only Friday evening while the law requires that it should have been handed to her at least 72 hours before she was due to appear.

In addition, the summons said she was to be questioned in connection with crimes committed between June 17 and July 28 this year. The crimes are related to the free speech forum held daily at the party's headquarters.

The source said the summons fails to mention people already being charged for the "crimes" as stipulated by the law.

Furthermore, the summons fails to include details about the official consent from President Soeharto for the probe into Megawati. As a legislator and member of the People's Consultative Assembly, Megawati has a number of privileges, including exemption from police questioning, which can only be removed by a presidential order.

Senior military officers had earlier said that Megawati should take some responsibility for the riots that left three people dead and substantial damage to property.

They said the free speech forum held at the PDI headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro when it was under her control had been widely abused by PDI leaders and activists who used it as a platform to attack the government and incite people to riot.

Apart from Megawati, PDI legislators Aberson M. Sihaloho and Sophan Sophiaan and Sabam Sirait have also been summoned.

Separately, Indonesia's oldest living general, Gen. (ret) Abdul Harris Nasution, said yesterday the military was mistaken in adopting the shoot-on-site policy issued early last week.

"The shoot-on-site order is a fundamental error," he said.

Nasution said tear gas should be prescribed to deal with any disturbances, because its use was approved by the military high command in the past.

He argued that the current unrest, which erupted and threatened the political system, is caused by none other than the New Order's own reluctance to accommodate political reform.

Restrictions on people's participation in political activity can no longer restrain the increasingly dynamic society, he pointed out.

Nasution also questioned the wisdom of the government's insistence in accusing a communistesque group, known as the People's Democratic Party (PRD), as being responsible for engineering the unrest in a bid to topple the government.

"Those who were born after 1965, in my opinion, are far from what they are being accused of, even though I do not deny the possibility of someone pushing them in that direction," Nasution said. (mds)