The House's last farce

The leadership of the outgoing House of Representatives, the latest performance of which has become target of public criticism, still has ambitions for the House to be remembered as an effective legislature.

The House, the last legacy of the fallen regime of president Soeharto, has pushed itself during these final days to approve as many bills as possible to be passed into law. Among them is the controversial state security bill which will surely create work for the new House, which will take over next month.

In another effort to boost its prestige on Tuesday, the House invited President B.J. Habibie to explain his policy on East Timor. The House had expected the President to answer written questions penned by House members.

By inviting him to address the House, it expected to break a long-standing taboo that the head of state only visits the body twice a year: to propose the new national budget and to give his state to the nation address on the eve of Independence Day.

However, the House's invitation to Habibie appears to have been for nought. Habibie's speech was criticized as being worth next to nothing because his explanation failed to answer questions concerning the East Timor debacle.

"The speech failed to cover all pertinent issues. The President did not touch at all upon the victims of violence after the ballot," said one legislator.

Aisyah Amini, a veteran chairwoman of House Commission I for security and defense, said there was nothing new in Habibie's explanation because her commission had gained similar explanations from Minister of Defense and Security/Military Commander. Gen. Wiranto and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas.

Legislator Sutoyo, former director general of political affairs at the home ministry, said he could not accept the President's speech because it was only a self-endorsement of his East Timor policy.

The country under Habibie's one-and-a-half-year administration has lost one province, he said. "We will lose five or six other provinces if he leads the country for the next five years," he added emotionally.

Sutoyo may imagine that the government's decision to offer the East Timorese special autonomy or separation from Indonesia -- obviously designed to set Indonesia free from international pressure -- will have far-reaching consequences.

If at some time the United Nations gets the opportunity to see firsthand the human rights violations in Aceh, it will surely pressure Indonesia to accept the recent demand for referendum by Acehnese taliban (students of Islamic traditional schools). And, reasoning that the nation should be free of international pressure, Habibie could very possibly succumb to the demand.

Disappointment among legislators became all the more evident when House Deputy Speaker Abdul Gafur, who presided over the meeting, denied legislators the right to ask questions by ignoring them when they raised their hands to speak. His behavior not only angered House members, but also turned the rare meeting into a monolog instead of a lively discussion.

So both the President and the House leadership have spent their precious time for yet another cheap farce.