Presidential bill is top priority of the House

Presidential bill is top priority of the House

JAKARTA (JP): Perturbed by the slew of scandals that have hit
the President, legislators are speeding up their initiative in
drafting a bill which would act as a code of conduct for the head
of state.

House of Representatives legislation body chairman Zein
Badjeber said the bill would regulate, among other things, the
amount of gifts which could be accepted by a president and
procedures for installing ministers.

"We hope to submit the bill next month as part of the
initiative of the House," Zein, who is also a senior legislator
of the United Development Party (PPP), said on Friday.

He said the bill, which began life in the days of former
president B.J. Habibie, was now at the House's secretariat.

An expert team is due to examine the bill in the coming weeks.

He said the team would consist of experts from various top
universities, such as constitutional law experts, political
scientists and legal drafters.

"We just suggested the criteria for the experts to the
secretariat without mentioning their names," Zein, a retired
judge, added.

He said the bill was one of three -- a bill on small credit
and loans, along with a bill on the procedures of drafting a bill
-- which was scheduled to be completed by the legislation body
before the end of this year.

Zein remarked that the presidential bill was urgent since
other high state institutions, such as the House and the Supreme
Court, all have such laws.

He refuted suggestions that the bill would diminish
presidential prerogative.

"Even in the United States, which applies a pure presidential
system, the installment of the defense secretary and attorney
general is discussed in the Congress," he contended.

Zein, who first sat as a legislator in 1966 for the Nahdlatul
Ulama Party, said that if the bill was approved, the president
would have to consult with the House when appointing ministers.

He further contended that House approval was also necessary as
it would be the House which would later approve the ministry's
budgets through the state budget.

Golkar Party legislator Slamet Effendy Yusuf stressed that the
bill should not be misperceived as an effort to "jail" the
president's movements.

"The bill should be viewed as an effort which will be useful
for a long time, whoever the country's president is," Slamet, who
is also deputy speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly's Ad
Hoc I committee on constitutional amendments, said.

He added that the Golkar Party and other factions also had
their own version of the presidential bill which could later, if
needed, be merged with the one already at the secretariat.

Slamet, who is Golkar's deputy chairman, said one of the most
important aspects would be the specific monetary value of gifts
the chief executive received.

"If the amount is over US$100, for example, it should belong
to the state. So far, such things have never been stipulated in
any regulation," he remarked.

Slamet conceded that this initiative might be misconstrued by
some as a backlash to the Brunei scandal currently being
investigated by the House in which the President received a
personal gift of $2 million from the Sultan of Brunei.

"It's just a coincidence. But the momentum is high for the
House to suggest the bill," he remarked.

President Abdurrahman Wahid has maintained that the "personal"
donation was channeled to several non-governmental organizations
to aid humanitarian projects in Aceh, Maluku and Irian Jaya
provinces.(jun)