Political battle between Amien and Laksamana heats up

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A political battle is close to peaking ahead of the 2004 elections between People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais and State Minister for State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi as the two figures are determined to settle their differences over the privatization issue in court.

Amien, who is also chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN), refused on Thursday to bend to Laksamana's demand for him to apologize for his comments against the minister and his policies on privatization.

Speaking to journalists in Jakarta, Amien instead challenged Laksamana -- also a senior figure with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) -- to take him to court in response to the minister's legal notification against the MPR speaker last week.

Responding to Amien's refusal to apologize through the mass media, Laksamana's lawyer Amir Syamsuddin told Metro TV station on Thursday that his client would soon file a lawsuit against Amien for branding the minister a "foreign agent", who sold state companies cheaply and not transparently.

In a recent interview with the Forum Keadilan weekly magazine, Amien, when asked about the man behind the government's decision to exonerate debtors from criminal charges, said: "I don't need to mention a name. However, I see a very dangerous minister in the Gotong Royong Cabinet. I have long been suspicious that this person is actually a foreign agent. I doubt if there is a little nationalism, a feeling of love for the nation in this person".

Although the conflict will likely go to court, it will also drag Amien's PAN and Laksamana's PDI Perjuangan into a heated political battle ahead of the 2004 elections.

Laksamana controls trillions of rupiah of state assets, which his political rivals said could be misused to support PDI Perjuangan's coffers for the financing of his party's electoral campaigns.

Political analyst Ikrar Nusa Bhakti said on Thursday the Laksamana-Amien legal battle was politically motivated.

It was part of Amien's early campaign to run for the presidency in 2004, he added.

Ikrar said Amien and PAN were also trying to show to the public that they were more nationalistic than PDI Perjuangan, which President Megawati Soekarnoputri currently chairs, in the issue of the national privatization program.

Another political analyst, Andi Mallarangeng, concurred with Ikrar, saying: "The conflict between Amien and Laksamana is politically motivated".

However, Andi said many people had voiced similar criticism over the complaints Amien raised against Laksamana over the privatization issue.

Amien insisted on Thursday that the government had made a mistake by selling state assets "cheaply and arbitrarily", including state-owned telecommunications firm PT Indosat, thus prompting losses to the country.

At least 41.9 percent of government shares in Indosat was sold for Rp 5.6 trillion (US$610 million) to Singapore telecommunications firm Singapore Technologies Telemedia Ltd. (STT).

Economists and other critics of Laksamana, including activists of the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), said that Indosat's price was too low as it could have been sold for an additional Rp 1.8 trillion, or over Rp 8 trillion.

They also accused the Indosat sale of not being transparent and that there was a lack of accountability as the actual buyer was Indonesian Communication Ltd.

In addition, Indosat's workers have opposed the sale of their company to a foreign firm.

Andi threw his support behind a legal settlement to solve the Laksamana-Amien dispute in the hopes that the court would be able to disclose whether Indosat's sale was transparent and accountable.

However, Ikrar suggested that Laksamana and Amien should settle their case amicably by arranging a meeting between the both of them to clarify the dispute.

The House of Representatives should also hold a hearing with Laksamana over Indosat's sale to investigate its transparency, he added.

"If Laksamana and Amien press ahead with their legal battle, there will be no winner or loser. Laksamana could lose the current battle as his case is weak, but the actual problem of privatization has not been resolved," Ikrar said.