Politicians set terms for dialog
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)