Palace officials apologize over 'peci' affair

JAKARTA (JP): Two senior officials at Merdeka Palace denied on Monday President B.J. Habibie had ordered journalists to wear a peci, a traditional black cap, when covering stories at the palace.

"If there are any parties who said (wearing a peci) was an obligation, it was only a misunderstanding, and the palace apologizes to journalists if there was an impression that there was such an instruction from the President," Dewi said.

Presidential Household Head M. Basyuni said any of his subordinates or other presidential staff were wrong if they told journalists they were required to wear a peci, and he guaranteed such a "misunderstanding" would not occur again.

"We want to state that there is no condition, let alone a compulsion, to wear a peci when covering activities at the palace or the State Secretariat," Basyuni announced at the State Guest House.

One of Habibie's adjutants earlier called several photojournalists and television cameramen "stupid" for not wearing a peci when they covered a meeting between the President and the United Nations secretary-general's special envoy on East Timor Jamsheed Marker at Merdeka Palace on June 21.

Basyuni said the adjutant, Col. Firman Gani, apologized to journalists for the incident. One of the journalists, however, denied receiving an apology.

The incident became public when the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) issued a statement last Wednesday deploring the incident.

"You are stupid, you have been told to wear a peci if you are covering the President here, so why don't you wear one," AJI quoted the adjutant, a police colonel, as saying to the journalists.

As his two predecessors Sukarno and Soeharto, Habibie wears a peci, which he describes as a symbol of "nationalism".

Dewi said on Monday the President asked ministers and palace officials to wear a peci after a conversation with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Bill Skate during a state banquet held in Skate's honor at the State Palace mid last year.

Habibie told Skate the cap was a symbol of national identity. Skate then asked why only palace employees wore a peci.

When Skate asked why the ministers present at the banquet did not wear a peci, the President replied: "Because they are intellectuals."

After this conversation, the President asked ministers and government officials to wear a peci, Dewi said.

"It is the President's custom to wear a peci, and his guests at the palace, out of courtesy and to show respect to the President, also wear one," Dewi said. (prb)