Soeharto happy to open course for legislators

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto has agreed to open a crash course for the next 500 members of the House of Representatives on Aug. 9 at the State Palace, State Minister of Special Assignments Harmoko announced yesterday.

After meeting Soeharto at the Bina Graha presidential office, Harmoko said the President would share his experience with the future legislators while opening the six-day course.

The course will be held at the Bogor presidential palace in West Java. The future legislators will be divided into five study groups of 100.

The first group will attend the six-day course from Aug. 10 to Aug. 15. The second will start on Aug. 19, and the final groups will begin in the following weeks.

Two major agendas will interrupt the course, with President Soeharto delivering a state-of-the-nation address on the eve of the Independence Day on Aug. 16.

Harmoko said discussions would be the only thing on the government-organized course's agenda.

"The format will be 100 percent discussion and avoid the use of lectures and monologue speech. This is not an indoctrination, a sort of course on Pancasila state ideology nor the government's attempt to compel, dictate and influence legislators," he said.

Harmoko reported to the President yesterday about preparations for the course. Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono and chairman of the Pancasila propagation agency, Alwi Dahlan, accompanied Harmoko at the meeting.

The government is holding the course to help the future legislators, who will begin their term on Oct. 1, improve their ability to articulate people's aspirations and improve their social control. Soeharto has said that the course is not compulsory.

House legislators have been widely criticized for allegedly rubber stamping government policies.

Harmoko said course materials and moderators had been prepared by the Pancasila propagation agency, but would be discussed with a steering committee of representatives of the three political parties and the Armed Forces.

The study groups would vary to let legislators from different factions get to know each other, Harmoko said.

Golkar, the runaway winner in the May 29 election, will field 325 legislators in the course, the United Development Party 89 and the Indonesian Democratic Party 11. The Armed Forces, whose members do not vote, will have 75 representatives.

Harmoko, also Golkar's chairman, said he would be among those attending the course.

"I must abide by the party's decision (that obliges all its legislators to join the course)," he said.

Harmoko, who topped the list of Golkar legislative candidates from West Java, has been tipped as the strongest candidate for the House speaker post. (06/amd)