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)