President should consult with DPR

Mr. Dimyati suggested that the Commission of Inquiry into Human Right Violations (KPP HAM) in East Timor also calls on Habibie, who, he deems is responsible for the East Timor postreferendum chaos and atrocities.

May I ask for your kind help to educate me and the public. Was, and is, the president entitled to offer any province in our republic a referendum to separate from the republic? With my limited experience and knowledge of industry and trade, the executive body, being the board of directors, cannot just go and sell the assets of the company.

It must first ask the board of commissaries, in this case the House of Representatives (DPR). Eventually they will ask the shareholders i.e. the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) if its idea is acceptable, and they would then proceed to gather offers etc., and present the result. Then the highest office (a meeting of shareholders) decides.

Is it not thus, that the power of the president is, or should be, limited, and, in cases like the one above, he or she ought to go through a similar process?

YOESOEF SANTO

Jakarta