President to respond to House censure on March 29

JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives will hold a plenary session on March 29 to hear President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid's response to its memorandum of censure.

Abdul Kholiq Achmad, the secretary of the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction, said the date of the plenary session was decided on by the House's consultative body during a meeting here on Thursday.

"All of the factions in the meeting agreed to set (the plenary session) for March 29," he said.

The 11 factions in the House will evaluate the President's response to the memorandum of censure to decide whether it is necessary to issue a second memorandum.

The House censured the President on Feb. 1 for his alleged involvement in the Bulog and Brunei financial scandals.

The President has three months to reply to the censure, after which the House, if not satisfied with the response, can issue a second memorandum.

The President would then have one month to respond to this second censure. Following this, the House could propose the People's Consultative Assembly hold a special session to deliberate possible impeachment of the President.

Kholig Achmad also said on Thursday the House's consultative body had scheduled a plenary session for March 30 to allow factions to respond to a proposal by a coalition of six factions to expedite the second memorandum of censure.

"Our faction will certainly reject the proposal since the (deadline) for the first memorandum is May 1," he said, insisting the House could not decide to expedite the issuance of the second memorandum of censure.

Meanwhile, the deputy secretary-general of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Pramono Anung, denied Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is also the chairwoman of the party, was supervising the team drafting the President's response to the first memorandum of censure.

"The first memorandum was issued because of the President's personal problems and does not concern state issues. As Vice President, Ibu Mega is only involved in state business," Pramono said on Thursday.

Separately, the chairman of the Golkar Party faction in the House, Syamsul Mu'arif, said on Thursday the best solution to the current political turbulence was collaboration and reconciliation.

"It is the House's right to submit a second memorandum because there is no regulation stipulating that we have to wait for the President's answer before issuing the second memorandum.

"But we have to be realistic here. Are we really ready for Gus Dur to be removed from office? No, we are not ready. If he steps down the country will still be falling apart because of the already deteriorating economic and political situation," he said. (02/edt/dja/rms)