The House's last farce

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.