PDI legislators may be absent from crash course
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) central board announced yesterday it will let its 11 House of Representatives members decide for themselves if they wish to participate in government-sponsored legislative crash courses.
President Soeharto has assigned State Minister of Special Assignments Harmoko to coordinate the courses which are aimed at improving the quality of 500 legislators who will be installed on Oct. 1.
"Our legislators are free to attend or skip the courses, and we won't impose any sanctions on absentees," PDI secretary- general Buttu Hutapea said after addressing eight party representatives who will join the courses.
Buttu made the statement amid reports that a PDI legislator refused to participate in the courses to be opened today by President Soeharto at the State Palace.
"But we suggest they take part in the courses, because at least they'll be able to get to know each other and be able to trade information with the government," Buttu said.
Buttu said one of his party's legislators, Y.B. Wiyanjono, appeared likely to miss the courses due to personal family commitments.
Wiyanjono, who will serve a second five-year term, was not available for comment yesterday, but his niece, Uti, told The Jakarta Post that her uncle was in his hometown of Yogyakarta and would arrive here on Monday.
The courses will be held at the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java, and organized by the agency for the study of the state-ideology Pancasila (BP7).
Participants will be divided into five groups. The first batch will run from Sunday through Friday, the second group is scheduled to start Aug. 19 and the remaining groups will meet in the following weeks.
Meanwhile the composition of PDI legislators at the House has changed with Markus Wauran replacing Amin Hadi, who resigned his seat.
Markus, whose second five-year term ends Sept. 30, was fifth behind Amin on the list of legislative candidates from East Java.
Amin was the second elected East Java legislator to resign after Dimmy Haryanto refused a second House term to pave the way for veteran Budi Hardjono.
PDI won only two House seats from East Java in the May 29 general election.
Sanctions
Speaking about the courses, Minister Harmoko said Thursday that they were not compulsory and there would not be any sanctions against those who did not attend.
"There's no problem if they miss the courses. We're not going to force them to go, because maybe they're not healthy enough or too busy doing other things," Harmoko said.
He said some Golkar legislators asked him to change their course schedules because of illness or uncompleted business.
The May 29 general election saw Golkar win 325 House seats, the United Development Party 89 and PDI 11. The remaining 75 seats were reserved for the Armed Forces, whose members did not vote.
Separately, BP7 agency head Alwi Dahlan guaranteed yesterday that the courses would not serve as a forum to indoctrinate legislators.
"It's impossible to do that because both the course instructors and legislators are indoctrination-proof people," Alwi was quoted by Antara as saying.
Among the course instructors will be Alwi himself, Kompas daily chief editor Jakob Oetama, National Commission on Human Rights secretary-general Baharuddin Lopa, former minister of justice Ismail Saleh, legal expert Satjipto Rahardjo and National Resilience Institute deputy governor Juwono Sudarsono.
Alwi said the legislators would discuss 10 topics, including freedom of speech, national resilience, constitutional amendments and global change.
He said the press would be barred from covering the courses in order "to make them a success". (amd)