Search goes on for state document

Search goes on for state document

JAKARTA: The government is continuing the search for a long missing document issued by first president Sukarno on Sept. 11, 1966, which reportedly transferred power to his successor, Soeharto, a minister said on Thursday.

However, many pro-Soekarno figures refuse to accept that the missing Sept. 11 decree did in fact transfer power to Soeharto, who himself was forced to quit following massive rioting in May 1998.

"We will interview relatives of Pak Jusuf. We have promised to hold interviews on Aug. 30 and Aug. 31," State Minister of Administrative Reforms Taufiq Effendy told a hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission II on domestic affairs.

Former chief security minister Jusuf was a key witness in connection with the controversial document. He passed away earlier this year in his hometown of Makassar, South Sulawesi.

Taufiq said the National Archives Agency had strived to the utmost to find the missing decree, and had interviewed historians and politicians from the Sukarno regime, but to no avail.

Earlier in the hearing, lawmaker Pastor Saut Hasibuan asked the minister why the search for such an important state document had failed to come up trumps. --Antara