TNI to replace faction representatives in House

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Military (TNI) headquarters announced on Thursday that it would replace nine of its 38 representatives at the House of Representatives.

The military headquarters, however, dismissed speculations that the reshuffle had a correlation with the upcoming House Plenary Session on April 30, which would evaluate President Abdurrahman Wahid's response to the House's first memorandum of censure and likely issue a second memorandum against the President.

The nine are Maj. Gen.(ret) FX Ferry Tinggogoy, Maj. Gen. Ignatius Mulyono, Maj. Gen. Sudyotomo, Maj. Gen. Sri Hardjendro, Brig. Gen. Ngatmin Nanto, Rear Admiral I Gusti Ngurah Sebudhi, Rear Admiral Sutanto, Commodore Poerwoto Setyo Handojo and Maj. Gen. Benyamin Balukh.

Their successors, who will be installed on Friday, are Maj. Gen. Yahya Secawiria, Maj. Gen. Max Markus Tamaela, Brig. Gen. Soetadji, Col. Abdul Rahman Husin, Col. Bambang Achmad Sudarmanto, Rear Admiral Heribertus Sudiro, Commodore Frans Wuwung, Brig. Gen. Nono Soekarno and Brig. Gen. Aman Sudjana Prawira.

Lt. Gen. Budhi Harsono, chairman of the TNI/National Police faction at the House, said the replacement of the nine TNI representatives had no relation with the conflict between the President and the legislative body, citing that the reshuffle had been planned since last January.

"It was just a coincidence that the reshuffle took place only a few days before the House plenary session. However, the two events had no connection with one another," he said.

The TNI/Police faction surprisingly supported the move by major House factions on Feb. 1, 2001 to issue the first memorandum against the President over his alleged involvement in two financial scandals.

Many have observed the move by the TNI/Police faction as abandoning its neutrality in politics.

Asked about the grounds for the reshuffle, Budhi said it was the prerogative of the TNI leadership to do so.

"The reshuffle is based on an instruction from the military leadership and it should be seen as a standard event," he said, adding that the replacement of military members in the legislature was different from that of political parties because the military's seats in the House were based on assignment and not general elections.

He said several of the nine have retired from military service, while others would be reassigned.

According to the 1999 Decree of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the military and the National Police will have their representatives at the legislative body until 2004 and at the Assembly until 2009. (rms)