Special partfolio 'won't burden state'

Special partfolio 'won't burden state'

JAKARTA (JP): The government has appeased concerns that the
recent creation of the office of State Minister of Special
Assignments would pose a financial and bureaucratic burden on the
state.

State Minister of Administrative Reform T.B. Silalahi said
yesterday that Harmoko, the former minister of information who
assumed the new position yesterday, would not need his own
personnel as he would be assisted by members of the State
Secretariat. The position had clear-cut duties and was only
temporary, he said.

"The duties are clear, as President Soeharto described them,
so why should it be a burden?" he responded to reporters'
questions.

"If necessary, there are personnel from other departments,
including that of the (dissolved) Ministry of Trade. So it's not
necessary (to recruit personnel)," he was quoted by Antara as
saying.

Harmoko, who is also chairman of the dominant Golkar party,
relinquished his position as information minister, which he had
held for 14 years, to Gen. R. Hartono earlier this week.

Harmoko was given the new state ministerial portfolio with the
duty to brief new legislators on the state ideology Pancasila.

When asked whether the office of State Minister of Special
Assignments would cease after Harmoko joins the new House of
Representatives, Silalahi said: "We'll see. If (the position) is
still necessary, it'll stay."

Harmoko bade farewell to the staff of the Ministry of
Information yesterday. He told the press he would soon have to
concentrate on his legislature role.

When asked whether he would be the state minister of special
assignments beyond Oct. 1, he said: "You can make your own
interpretation.

"God willing I'll be installed as a member of the House of
Representatives/People's Consultative Assembly on Oct.1.
According to the rules, a legislator cannot hold an executive job
concurrently," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

"A member of political organizations, however, can double in
executive positions," he said.

He also said he would soon apply himself to his new
ministerial task of briefing the new legislators from the United
Development Party, Golkar, the Indonesian Democratic Party and
the Armed Forces.

"The briefings will not indoctrinate, dictate, or force (the
legislators into doing anything), but will be something done
together to improve the quality of House members," he said.

"We already have high quality House members, but, as people
expect, they can be improved," he said.

Separately yesterday, chief of the Armed Forces (ABRI) faction
at the House of Representatives Lt. Gen. Suparman Achmad,
expressed support for Harmoko's new tasks.

He said the faction would support any training to improve the
quality of the legislators so that they would not "raise silly
questions during hearings with government officials."

He said at the Armed Forces' headquarters yesterday he did not
see any problem with the fact that a training for legislators
would be given by government officials. (swe/imn)