Politicians set terms for dialog

JAKARTA (JP): The country's leading politicians said they could accept the reconciliation talks proposed by President Abdurrahman Wahid provided that a clear agenda had been set in advance.

People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais said on Sunday that the previous meeting between the nation's top leaders was fruitless as it lacked focus.

"We can't engage in ketoprak (Javanese traditional drama) anymore, as people are becoming more critical and sensitive. All members of the political elite should be ashamed if the meeting turns out to be another ruse," Amien said in Yogyakarta.

He was speaking to deny media reports saying that he would boycott the proposed meeting.

Amien suggested that the meeting make the talks on national leadership a priority because Abdurrahman had lost both popular and House of Representatives support.

Gus Dur, as the President is widely known, has expressed his desire to meet with top political leaders, including some of his fiercest critics, to seek an end to the country's political stalemate.

Amien, House Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung and the Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri are expected to join the meeting.

In a meeting brokered by Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, the four came together in Yogyakarta ahead of the Assembly annual session in August last year. The Assembly had rejected the possibility of holding a special session and starting the formal process of impeachment at that time.

Amien, who also chairs the National Mandate Party (PAN), warned that the meeting would be another waste of time and energy if the President turned a deaf ear to the advice of others.

Amien also explained that an Assembly special session would not necessarily lead to the impeachment of the President.

"If Gus Dur can reassure all Assembly members about the many things he has done to bring the country out of the crisis, of course they will not proceed to impeach him," Amien remarked.

A formal process of impeachment could be called for by the House if the President failed to provide a convincing response to three memoranda of censure.

The House will give its response to Abdurrahman's reply to the first memorandum at the end of this month.

Speaking at a party function in Salatiga, Central Java, Akbar suggested that Abdurrahman invite all the leaders of major political parties to the proposed meeting because it would cover all the problems facing the country.

Earlier Akbar said that the results of the proposed meeting should be "formalized" through constitutional means.

"The meeting should be followed by talks both in the DPR and MPR," Akbar said.

He also said that if during the meeting the four leaders succeeded in reaching a political compromise, the result should then be formalized through an Assembly session.

Opposition

Other critics were cool toward Abdurrahman's proposal.

Chairman of the Justice Party (PK) Hidayat Nur Wahid asserted on Sunday that the Assembly special session was the appropriate forum to address the ongoing political logjam.

"A meeting to seek political compromise would only violate the current constitutional process," Hidayat said.

Hidayat also said that an Assembly special session would serve as a test to promote a mechanism of state affairs, in which its results would be binding on each party.

"Seeking a compromise between members of the political elite will only open the way for a horse trading, which people will be unable to control.

"This kind of political compromise will be fruitless since power-sharing among the political elite is not a solution to the country's problems," Hidayat said on the sidelines of a ceremony marking the inauguration of the party's youth organization Garda Keadilan's building.

Speaking in the East Kalimantan capital of Samarinda over the weekend, former Cabinet minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra joined in the chorus against the proposal, saying that the meeting would be futile.

"It is no exaggeration to say that the offer is a waste of time and even maybe difficult to be realized," Yusril, who was fired as justice and human rights minister by the President in February, was quoted by Antara as saying.

Yusril said the meeting would be ineffective as the underlying problem was not the relations between the four leaders but "hostile relations between the President and the legislature as an institution".

"There has been a wrong perception that the four leaders would be able to overcome the political crisis," Yusril said.

"With regard to controlling the majority in the legislature, the MPR chairman and the House speaker would not be able to do much ... they can't decide things without consulting the lawmakers first," he added.

He, therefore, said the only possible solution to end the deadlock was "through an institutional mechanism that involves all related parties". (02/44/har/dja/byg)