Regions want faction at MPR reinstated

JAKARTA (JP): The Forum of Regional Representatives in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) has renewed its call for the reinstatement of its own faction given that the assembly is planning to hold two sessions within the next three months.

The forum's chairman, Oesman Sapta, said regional representatives deserved their own faction to enable them to channel the aspirations of people in the provinces both during the MPR special session and its annual session.

"These two sessions are major events where all parts of the nation, including regional representatives, will decide on the country's leadership, the reform movement and regional autonomy," Oesman said after a consolidation meeting of the forum here on Saturday.

Oesman, who represents West Kalimantan in the Assembly, said the forum was upset by the MPR's failure to stand by its commitment to reestablish the regional representatives faction, which was dissolved during the 1999 MPR session. During its annual session last August, the MPR agreed to reinstate the faction within four months.

Hatta, deputy chairman of the forum, asserted that the regional representatives had the right to fight for regional interests in the MPR if embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid was to deliver his accountability statement before the highest law making body at its special session to be held in August.

"Not only the political parties, but the regions have their own responsibilities and political interests in determining the country's future," Hatta said.

Asked to comment on the conflict between the President and the House of Representatives, Hatta said the forum had repeatedly called on both the President and the House to sit down together and engage in a dialog to seek a peaceful solution to all of the nation's problems, including the conflict between the executive and legislature.

"Both the President and the major parties should leave their own interests behind them and prioritize the major problems the nation is facing," he said, warning that their protracted dispute would have repercussions in troubled provinces.

He regretted the fact that the reform movement had gone beyond the law and that this had endangered national unity and tarnished the central government's image in remote regions.

Hatta, however, dismissed the President's recent statement that six provinces would declare their independence if the President were to be impeached at the MPR special session.

"We are representing provinces and we are committed to maintaining the unitary state. The people really do not care about the conflict between the members of the political elite and about who should lead the nation. Of the greatest importance is that the government pays serious attention to development programs so as to enable people to survive the ongoing economic crisis," he asserted.

Hatta also said that regional representatives needed a faction in the Assembly to channel people's aspirations about regional autonomy during the MPR's next annual session.

Since its inception in January, regional autonomy had given rise to fundamental problems that had to be brought up at the MPR's annual session so that solutions could be found, he said.

"The main problems are that the putting into effect of regional autonomy has given rise to confusion in numerous provinces, and that the central government has retained its control over the regions' internal affairs despite the decentralization of power," he said.

He, however, admitted that many regencies had taken measures that went beyond the purview of the regional autonomy law due to the absence of regulations and guidelines on the implementation of regional autonomy.

"The absence of regulations and guidelines is connected to the ineffective administration and the prolonged conflict between the President and the House," he said. (rms)