Palace officials apologize over 'peci' affair
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)